Climate change in South Korea
Climate change has led to extreme weather events in South Korea that affects: social, economy, industry, culture, and many other sectors.
To quickly adapt to climate change, the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
[3][better source needed] Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases, which are anthropogenic factors for climate change.
The green house gas emissions of South Korea started drastically increased from 1970s due to industrial and economical development.
[11] [12] Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, has 228 years of precipitation records, starting with traditional cheugugi rain gauges which is the longest continual instrumental rainfall collection in the world.
[20]' The tropical rain belt 'Changma front' is created in the Bay of Bengal and the western North Pacific as a sub-system of the East Asian Monsoon.
This slow movement results in a large, but steady, amount of summer rainfall over the entire Korea Peninsula in late June and July each year.
The amount of rainfall and number of rainy days in the 'Fall Changma' period is generally lower than when the front moves north in early summer.
[24] Since 1999, the Korea Global Atmosphere Watch Center located at Anmyeon-do has been monitoring major greenhouse gasses (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11 and CFC-12).
The Anyone-do station is located in a relatively pollution-free environment, an ideal site for observing the background atmosphere of Northeast Asia, including the Korean Peninsula.
The Korea Meteorological Administration's heat wave standard is defined as a case where the daily maximum temperature of 33 °C or higher lasts for more than two days.
Drought is one of the weather disasters that causes enormous damage to areas that greatly affect the national economy and people's lives, such as agriculture, forests, and livestock.
These airborne particulates are transported not only to Russia, Korea, and Japan, but also sometimes to the east of the United States, causing serious health problems.
[47] According to the RCP 2.6/4.5/6.0/8.5 scenario, Korea's average sea level is expected to rise 37.8, 48.1, 47.7, and 65.0 cm at the end of the 21st century, respectively.
The coast has a unique ecosystem as the boundary between land and the sea, and a wide variety of species inhabit and high productivity is maintained, performing a biologically important function.
The IPCC warned that in order to prevent the catastrophe of climate change, the average global temperature should not increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrialization.
It threatens the survival of mankind while adversely affecting the rights of life, health, food, water, housing, and livelihood.
Droughts, landslides and floods can change the natural environment, and rising sea levels threaten millions of people living in low-lying areas.
In addition, more than 54% of adults and more than 45% of children were seriously threatened with mental health, and insomnia, hypersensitivity, increased drug use, and depression were observed.
The tendency to increase crime and violence during the hot summer suggests a link between aggressive behavior and temperature (Haertzen et al.; Cohen et al., 2004).
[52] This spread was also clearly demonstrated on a national scale for exotic species, such as Vespa velutina and Ricania shantungensis, and pest, including mosquitoes and ticks.
[52] For the future projection of the climate effect on ecosystem by models, flowering time of some target species was predicted to decrease.
684 of the Korea's largest emitters in the power, buildings, waste, transport and domestic aviation sectors are covered by the K-ETS, and minimally 10% of allowance must be auctioned.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security have already started a computational center for green energy-saving and have formulated a comprehensive plan to promote the 'energy-saving'.
Through professional organizations comprehensive energy-saving, environmental protection, and budget savings procedures are in progress for energy diagnostic purposes.
Unlike in the past, the keynote of the policy is to put emphasis on safety and the environment rather than on stability of supply and demand and economic feasibility and is to shift its reliance on nuclear power and coal to clean energy sources like renewables.
[57] · cancellation of plans for new nuclear reactors, no extension of lifespan of old reactors in order to raise its share in the power generation to 20% by 2030(7.6% as of 2017) Electricity Supply and Demand improved environmental and safety performances by 2030 Complementary Measure neighboring areas (industry, human resources) in the process of a gradual phase-out and Wind Energy damage, NIMBY, real estate speculation, consumer damage, etc.
Third, regarding the systems, the task is to raise the share of distributed generation nearby where demand is created with renewables and fuel cells and to enhance the roles and responsibility of local governments and residents.
[60][61] Amid major flooding in 2023, President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed the country overhaul its disaster preparedness as climate change causes more frequent extreme weather events.
It aimed to raise national environmental awareness, to encourage people to develop research and inquiry skills, and to put what they learn into action.
