The Green Transformation International Week (GX Week) and UNFCCC Climate Week, which kicked off on April 20 at the Yeosu Expo Convention Center, is nearing its close. Beginning with an opening ceremony that brought together approximately 800 participants including ministerial-level climate officials from major countries and senior figures from international organizations, a total of 67 sessions ran nonstop throughout the event period. At the negotiating table, the current state of Paris Agreement implementation — covering mitigation, adaptation, finance, and implementation — was officially reviewed, while outside the venue, Earth Day lights-out events and eco-friendly experience programs served as a bridge connecting citizens’ daily lives with the climate agenda. ESG Today examines the significance that this GX Week and UNFCCC Climate Week has left for South Korean climate diplomacy through the flow of the week.
Climate Negotiations and Energy Transition in One Venue
The UNFCCC Climate Week — held for the first time in South Korea — was jointly convened in conjunction with GX Week. Climate Week is a forum in which the 198 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change gather in one place to officially review the current state of Paris Agreement implementation. To this end, a total of 67 sessions were operated throughout the event period: 25 thematic events related to climate and energy, 11 citizen participation events, and 31 UNFCCC sessions. The government and industry jointly created a venue for cooperation on diverse themes, including a discussion forum on the electrification of transport modes for carbon neutrality in the transport sector, a forum on promoting local government carbon neutrality, and a forum on climate-tech innovation and transition finance. One citizen who visited Yeosu during Climate Week expressed that it was meaningful to glimpse the efforts being made by the nation and institutions amid the climate and energy crisis through the variety of programs.
[GX Week Opening Ceremony at the Yeosu Expo Convention Center © ESG.ONL]
UNFCCC Climate Week Opens, Entering the Substance of Negotiations
At 9:00 AM today, the official plenary opening ceremony of the UNFCCC Climate Week was held at the Expo Hall of the Yeosu World Expo site. At the event, attended by key figures from the international community including UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary Noura Hamladji, representatives of the COP Presidencies from Brazil and Türkiye, and delegations from the Parties, Vice Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Lee Ho-hyun announced plans to accelerate carbon neutrality, including building an ‘energy expressway’ and expanding renewable energy installed capacity, stating that “the Republic of Korea, as a leading actor in climate action, will make renewable energy the central pillar of the future energy system.”
[UNFCCC Climate Week Opening Ceremony held this morning © Jeollanam-do]
While GX International Week was a forum dealing with the Korea-led green transformation agenda, the UNFCCC Climate Week is a separate international negotiating stage at which the 198 Parties officially review the progress of Paris Agreement implementation. At this gathering attended by officials from international organizations and non-governmental organizations, pending issues are reviewed ahead of the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the UNFCCC, to be held in Türkiye this November. In addition, a global forum on Green Taxonomy and transition finance, as well as a Korea Exchange roundtable for upgrading the carbon emissions trading market (K-ETS), still remain on the agenda through the event’s close.
Climate Action Practiced at the Venue
During Climate Week, various scenes encouraging citizen practice unfolded both inside and outside the venue. The use of disposable products was restricted and reusable containers were encouraged throughout all areas of the venue, and eco-friendly hydrogen electric buses operated in circulation between major hotels and the event site. Yeosu City reduced paper printouts and introduced a digital information system to promote administrative efficiency and carbon neutrality.
[Eco-friendly hydrogen electric buses operated near the event venue © ESG.ONL]
On Earth Day, April 22, during the event period, major cities and landmarks across the country — including Yeosu City, the government complexes in Gwacheon and Sejong, Suwon Hwaseong Haenggung, and Busan’s Gwangan Bridge — participated in a simultaneous lights-out event for ten minutes starting at 8:00 PM. If approximately 10,000 households participate in the lights-out event, two tons of greenhouse gases can be reduced, an effect equivalent to planting about 200 thirty-year-old trees. For that moment, the carbon neutrality being discussed in the conference halls was connected through a single switch across the nation.
[Yeosu Expo Convention Center, where GX Week and UNFCCC Climate Week were jointly held © ESG.ONL]
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment stated that through this event it plans to build international consensus on the ‘Republic of Korea Green Transformation Promotion Strategy,’ scheduled to be announced in June, and further solidify South Korea’s role in the climate and energy field. What the soon-to-conclude Climate Week has left in Yeosu is not a consensus document but possibility. Let us look forward to the fruit that the agendas exchanged at the negotiating table will bear at the COP31 plenary this November, and to South Korea’s climate diplomacy as it leaps toward becoming a global standard-setting nation for green transformation.
by Editor L