• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-131
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• 2015

A cap-and-trade program accounting for 60 percent of total national greenhouse gas emissions was launched in South Korea in 2015. Academic literature expects that the implementation of such a policy is likely to adversely impact income distribution among various socioeconomic groups in developed countries. South Korea is challenged by equity issues, as well circumstances, the distributional implications of carbon pricing policies need to be examined and reflected in the design of the program prior to implementation in order not to exacerbate social inequity. Using environmentally extended input-output analysis together with household expenditure data, this study finds that a carbon pricing policy will be regressive in South Korea, but the extent depends on whether relative burdens of a carbon pricing policy are measured based on current incomes or proxies of permanent incomes. Along with poor households, this paper finds that elderly and urban households will be more adversely impacted in South Korea. These burdens can be relieved if a small fraction of the revenue is redistributed to households.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.165-204
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• 2022

This study organized data from 2000 to 2014 for 20 grid-connected countries in Europe and analyzed the determinants of carbon emissions through the panel GLS method considering the problem of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. At the same time, the effect of introducing ETS was considered by dividing the sample period as of 2005 when the European emission trading system was introduced. Carbon emissions from individual countries were used as dependent variables, and proportion of generation by each source, power self-sufficiency ratio of neighboring countries, power production from resource-holding countries, concentration of power sources, total energy consumption per capita in the industrial sector, tax of electricity, net electricity export per capita, and size of national territory per capita. According to the estimation results, the proportion of nuclear power and renewable energy generation, concentration of power sources, and size of the national territory area per capita had a negative (-) effect on carbon emissions both before and after 2005. On the other hand, the proportion of coal power generation, the power supply and demand rate of neighboring countries, the power production of resource-holding countries, and the total energy consumption per capita in the industrial sector were found to have a positive (+) effect on carbon emissions. In addition, the proportion of gas generation had a negative (-) effect on carbon emissions, and tax of electricity were found to have a positive (+) effect. However, all of these were only significant before 2005. It was found that net electricity export per capita had a negative (-) effect on carbon emissions only after 2005. The results of this study suggest macroscopic strategies to reduce carbon emissions to green growth, suggesting mid- to long-term power mix optimization measures considering the electricity trade market and their role.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.111 no.1
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• pp.177-185
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• 2022

In this study, the economic feasibility of a local energy facility that uses forest biomass as an energy source was assessed. We analyzed profitability using data from the Forest Energy Self-sufficient Village Project financed by the Korea Forest Service. The energy facility has a cogeneration generator and wood chip boiler. Wood chip, which has lower heat value and is cheaper than wood pellets, is used as fuel. Revenue comes from the sale of electricity, heat, and renewable energy certificates. Additionally, we considered the sale of carbon credits as substitutes for fossil fuels. The expenditure consists of fuel costs and fixed costs, and the initial investment is treated as a sunk cost. Under the condition of a 55% operation rate and wood chip price of 95,000 KRW per ton, the annual net revenue is positive. Crucial factors for managing the facility sustainably are operation rate and fuel cost. A simulation in which two factors were changed showed that the annual net revenue is negative with a 50% operation rate and 100,000 KRW per ton of wood chip price. To improve net revenue, an increase in the operation rate or a decrease in the wood chip price is required. Additionally, selling carbon credits will make the operation of the facility more profitable. Furthermore, the payment required to procure wood chips could contribute to the rural economy. To foster the use of forest biomass for energy, the price for heat supplied from renewable energy sources should be subsidized.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2004

This research investigates the life-cycle energy consumption of the windows used for the building's exterior cladding, and its environmental potential aspects by utilizing the LCA. The research scope has taken account of the entire life-cycle of the windows from the extraction of raw materials to its disposal, of which given sample building type is an apartment building. Results gained from the LCA of the windows as one of the steps in analysis reflects the current global interest and analysis trend towards the world's environmental issue on all fields of industry including the architectural industry, of which its newly established standards of architectural windows can further promote more environmentally sustainable factor compared to the previous analysis (focused more on energy efficiency assessment of the use stage).

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.163-181
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• 2010

As a part of efforts to reduce the global emissions of greenhouse gases, the Kyoto Protocol was signed by major developed countries ("Annex I" countries). According to the Kyoto protocol, the Emission Trading Scheme that derives a trading market of the $CO_2$ emission rights is appeared. It causes that business institutions give lots of efforts to reduce $CO_2$ by using new environmentally sound technologies or increasing efficiency in production. On the while there have been several studies trying to develop a methodology to measure the effect of $CO_2$ reduction and its monetary value. In this research we suggest ECRE (Evaluation of $CO_2$ Reduction in E-transformation) model which can measure the $CO_2$ reduction effect through the introduction of G2B system. ECRC model was developed based on the IPCC methodology. ECRC model measures the two major effects of the $CO_2$ reduction which are '$CO_2$ reduction effect from transportation' and '$CO_2$ reduction effect from the decrease of paper use'. In this paper, we calculate the economic effect of $CO_2$ reduction with the case of the G2B system in Korea. This research suggests a basic methodology to measure the $CO_2$ reduction performance for the e-transformed institution.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.97-122
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• 2012

This article analyzes the effects of energy price increase induced by GHGs mitigation policy on automobile industry empirically. An increase in energy price due to GHGs mitigation policy does not have a significant effect on the production and the value-added in automobile industry. Electricity price has a negative effect on the production and the value-added in automobile industry, but it is not significant. However, employment is significantly affected by a change in electricity price. Export is also affected negatively, but the effect is insignificant. These results imply that GHGs mitigation policy such as carbon tax might affect adversely the employment in automobile industry. Especially, their effects on employment are significant. Therefore, some moderating measures to relieve the adverse effects on employment in automobile industry should be called upon with the implementation of GHGs mitigation policy.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2014

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows New & Renewable Energy projects to make additional income by selling CER's, which represent the amount of Green House Gases(GHG) that is reduced in the project. However, forward contracts used to hedge fluctuating market prices does not allow projects to sell CER's at a premium. As an alternate approach to maximize CER revenue, CER's are modeled as a 'real option', in which CER's are sold only above the desired sales price. Using the Binomial Option Pricing model, the resultant lattices are used to determine whether to sell, defer or abandon the option at individual nodes. Overlaying Pascal's Triangle on the lattices also enabled the calculation of the annual probabilities for deferring CER sales without incurring downside losses. Application to an actual Landfill Gas project showed increased overall NPV, and that CER sales could be deferred at a maximum of 2 years. The proposed framework allows transparency in the analysis and provides valuable and strategical information when making investment decisions related to CER sales of CDM projects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.4
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• pp.630-638
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• 2011

This study aims to verify the economic validity of the REDD project in North Korea by estimating the potential carbon credits and the cost of REDD project. The REDD potential credits of North Korea are estimated based on the international statistics of forest area and population from 1990 to 2010, and the cost of REDD project is estimated indirectly by annual land opportunity cost of agriculture assuming that South Korea will aid the food production per area in North Korea. When the 25% reduction scenario was applied to the annual deforestation rate in North Korea, the potential REDD credits were estimated to be $4,232million{\sim}5,290milliontCO_2eq.$ for 20 years. It would account for 28~35% of South Korea's national medium-term greenhouse gas reduction target. On the other hand, the break-even price of REDD project was calculated as the profit of agriculture in the land available by forest conversion in North Korea. It was estimated to be 19.19$/$tCO_2eq.$ when the non-permanence risk of forest conserved through a REDD contract is assumed to be 20%. This price is higher than the price of REDD carbon credit 5$/$tCO_2eq.$ dealt in the 2010 voluntary carbon market, leading to no economic feasibility. However, REDD project provides co-benefits besides climate mitigation. As previous studies indicate, the break-even price is lower than 20$/$tCO_2eq.$, which is the social marginal cost of greenhouse gas emissions by loss of forest. Therefore REDD in North Korea can be justified against the social benefits. The economic feasibility of REDD project in North Korea can be largely influenced by the risk percentage. Thus, North Korean REDD project needs a strong guarantee and involvement by the government and people of North Korea to assure the project's economic feasibility.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.271-300
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• 2004

We investigate the two recent simulations of the proto-type domestic carbon emission trading system in Korea and draw some policy implications. The first simulation includes the 5 electric power companies based on baseline and credit. But the second one is with the 7 energy-intensive companies based on cap and trade. The voluntary approaches in this paper revealed the instability of market equilibrium, i.e., price volatility or distortion, excess supply or demand. These phenomena stems from excess incentives to the players, asymmetric information, players' irresponsible strategic behaviors, and non acquaintance of trading system. This paper suggests the basic design for domestic carbon trading system in future and a stepwise introduction strategy for it including the incentive auction scheme, the total quantity of incentive needed, and how to finance it. Meantime, the further simulations on the various sectors based on voluntary participation must be essential for learning experiences and better policy design.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-67
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• 2012

This paper analyzed the effect of transaction costs on the prices and trading volumes at the initial stage of emission markets and also examined how the size of the effect differs depending on the characteristics of the transactions. We built trading protocols modeling a recursive process to search the trading partner and make transactions with several behavioral assumptions considering the situations of early markets. The simulations results show that adding transaction costs resulted in reduction of trading volumes. Furthermore, the speed of reduction in trading volume to the increase of transaction costs is higher when there is scale economy. With a certain level of scale economy, the trading volumes abruptly fall down to almost zero as the transaction cost gets over a certain level. This suggests the possibility of a failed market. Since the scale economy is thought to be significant in the early stage of emission trading market, it is desirable to design a trading system that maximizes trading volumes and minimizes unit transaction costs at the outset. One of the alternatives to meet these conditions is to establish a centralized exchange and take measures to increase trading volumes.