[Editorial] Unveiling the ‘Green Great Transformation’: Make Eco-Friendly Industries a New Growth Engine

President Lee Jae Myung chaired the National Briefing on the Korea-style Green Transformation (K-GX) Strategy on the 7th. The event was an opportunity to flesh out the vision for a green transformation, presented as one pillar of the “K Initiative” in his keynote address to the UN General Assembly last month, into a government strategy and private-sector investment plans. As glacial floods in Nepal and heat waves in Europe show, the climate crisis is not something happening in far-off countries.
A green transition is a prerequisite for growth, given the need for a stable supply of clean power to foster the artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industries as well. But for declarations to lead to results, they must be backed by concrete action. Policies such as the green transition are a broad undertaking that encompasses not only energy but also the competitiveness of the country and its businesses. That makes careful institutional planning essential.
First, regulations should be eased where appropriate. Technologies such as offshore wind, solar power and energy storage systems are already seeing growth in both technological development and product deployment. Even so, an internal review is needed to determine whether eco-friendly green transition projects are being pursued on the basis of outdated energy policies and systems.
Regulations related to the green transition span multiple ministries and local governments. The government should look for ways to streamline permitting through cooperation among ministries. Easing regulations does not mean eliminating even those that are essential. It means creating rules that businesses can predict. The green transition is a field that requires massive investment, yet offers no certainty of success. Regulations should therefore be refined to give businesses confidence and predictability.
Second, industrial competitiveness must be strengthened. We have already had a bitter experience in pursuing green industries. We adopted policies to expand solar power deployment, but the market was filled with cheap Chinese-made panels. So fixated were we on the achievement of expanding solar thermal panel deployment that we neglected to build up domestic manufacturing. In trying to grow eco-friendly industries, we ended up benefiting Chinese companies instead.
Green transition projects, too, risk repeating past mistakes if they are pursued with targets focused solely on installed capacity. Projects such as the Green Great Transformation require large-scale government support. Public funds should be used to build the foundations of industry—but should we really pour support into imports of Chinese-made products instead of growing our own businesses? When our industrial competitiveness and government policies are well aligned, we can expect not only efficient investment but also stronger technological capabilities and job creation.
Third, we should guard against setting excessively ambitious and idealistic targets. An overzealous drive to make energy greener could undermine industrial competitiveness. Overly stringent carbon-neutrality standards could lead companies to abandon investment. Policymakers should fully understand conditions on the ground in industry and take them into account when formulating policy. In particular, policies should be tailored to reality after weighing not only technological maturity but also industrial competitiveness and the burden on the public.
This national briefing marks the starting point for Korea’s green transition. The transition will not happen on its own just because the government has announced a strategy and businesses have pledged to invest. Silos between ministries must be broken down, and regulations must be boldly rolled back. In particular, to achieve a green transformation tailored to Korea, the government should help ensure that investments and technology development by leading domestic companies generate synergies. As it has done in AI and semiconductors, Korea should build a homegrown industrial ecosystem for green industries and nurture them as another future growth sector.