Hello ladies and gentleman. This is the ambassador of South Korea and today, I would like to share the article of the second project. As you may know, I would write about various efforts that South Korea has done to mitigate climate change.

     According to climateactiontracker.org, South Korea's emissions have more than doubled between 1990 and 2012. As South Korea has been rapidly developing since 1960s, I have expected it, however, the reality was quite impressing. The emission levels in the period 2010-2012 were above the BAU projections. But the emission growth is becoming slower and our government is conducting lots of effort to reduce the emission rate.

     Let's look at the domestic efforts made in South Korea. For instance, in November 17^th, 2009, government has made new goal, which is to reduce greenhouse gas 4 percent compared to the 2005 figure until 2020. Moreover, in January, South Korea has become the first nation in Asia to launch emission trading scheme. According to dictionary.com, the definition for EST is denoting a scheme which allows companies with high greenhouse gas emissions to buy an emission allowance from companies which have fewer emissions, in a bid to reduce the overall impact to the environment. This policy has been adopted in EU countries for the past ten years and by implementing, I believe it would help a lot for Korea to reduce climate change. In addition, Ministry of Environment has formed a campaign which is called, 'Reducing one ton of greenhouse gas per person'

     The picture above is a sculpture representing the campaign, 'Reducing one tone of greenhouse gas per person'. Its diameter is 4.7m and the volume is 1/10 of one ton of greenhouse gas. Thinking of the environment, it is made of recyclable material. The campaign encourages people to reduce one ton of greenhouse gas by: using shopping basket which reduces 13.6kg, riding bike which reduces 27.5kg, recycling which reduces 22kg, turning off the boiler 1 hour which reduces 135.5kg, self carfree day which reduces 455,2kg, and so on.

     Not only domestic efforts but also international efforts has been made. In 9/17, the 7^th international symposium on climate change adaptation was held. The theme of the symposium was 'New Trend of Adaptation in National and International Adaptation Arenas.' The symposium was joined by participants including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and so on.

     While researching on this topic, I could learn a lot about the work of our country in the field of environment so personally, it was very meaningful. Also, the fact that I can share with this story is so honorable as well. I think Korea needs more effort in preserving the environment. By the cooperation of every single nation in the Earth, I believe the Earth would recover. But the mindset of every single person outweighs hundreds of governments' policies. I hope we could change the world.

Thanks. :)