Air pollution in South Korea
According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Seoul is one of the world's cities with the worst air pollution.
[1] According to the 2019 World Air Quality Report AirVisual, South Korea’s annual average ultrafine dust concentration in 2018 was 24.9µg/m³, which was the worst among OECD member countries.
[4] The society of South Korea began a massive shift from an agrarian to industrial economy, which was only accelerated by the Korean War.
Today, South Korea is a manufacturing and export powerhouse, as of 2015 it was the world's 11th largest gross domestic producer,[3] but this has been driven by coal-fired power generation and high vehicle emissions.
[7] In a 2018 survey of the Korean Ministry of Environment, 97% of respondents noted that air pollution was causing physical or psychological pain.
[8] In response, the South Korean government responded to the public by declaring a social disaster to release emergency funding.
[11] However, many experts say that Korea's heavy reliance on coal-fired power plants and diesel fuel is also a major part of the problem.
[14] China's growing economic activity has allowed them to burn a yearly average of 4 billion tons of coal, which in turn has contributed up to 50% of Korea's PM2.5 particles.
This gets worse with slow air currents in colder months, the National Institute of Environmental Research said in a report in 2016.
[16] This statistic is only expected to worsen with a predicted increase in China's number of power plants fueled by coal.
[19] Conventional power plants combust fossil fuels to produce energy and release hazardous gases such as oxides and nitrogen, carbon monoxide, particulates, and hydrocarbons into the air.
In a fast growing economy like South Korea, the growth of imports and exports can increase fossil fuel combustion.
During the spring, dry sand storms from deserts in China and Inner Mongolia travel long distances with these prevailing westerlies and causing sandstorms.
[23] Those in more urban areas with factories are more likely to be vulnerable to the averse effects of air pollution like citizens living in one of the seven major cities.
[29] A protest group in Seoul called Dust Out with 44,000 female members, mostly mothers petition the government to seriously consider the health situation for their children and future generations.
[31] Local studies have put the economic damage caused by air pollution, largely because of lost production, at about $9 billion a year and have predicted that this will be double by 2060.
By 2022, domestic emissions are planned to be cut by 30% as President Moon Jae-in vowed to shut down old coal plants (while also opening new ones).
[33] On a local level, Korean cities have many bicycle routes, pedestrian-only zones and a five-mile linear park.
[21] The use of unmanned aerial vehicles is part of a pilot program announced by South Korea's Ministry of Environment.
Government officials plan to identify illegal incinerations producing pollutants, fine dust, and carbon dioxide.
[25] The South Korean and Chinese governments are planning on having artificial rain in the Yellow Sea,[35] which could kill many marine animals.
South Korea was one of the first countries to diligently integrate green growth into their national strategy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG), pollution, and unnecessary usage of nonrenewable energy.
Despite the movement of the Green Growth Policy, there are flaws in the goals that are set to reduce the usage of nonrenewable energy.
During this phase, almost 30 different South Korean companies had invested approximately 13.6 billion USD in NRE technologies.
The aim was to install improved ventilation, air conditioning, less dusty tunnel beds, dust-trap mats at turnstiles, and publicly available information as to platform pollution.
