Hi~~ Everyone!!

Long time no see~~!!

Last month, I wrote two articles dealing with the air and water pollution happening in Seoul.  In April, I would like to bring up the issue of what the current government is doing to help improve the damaged environmental condition.~~

For the first article of this month, let's look at the governmental actions to relieve air pollution.  Hopefully, Korean government is now trying to create a greener Seoul.

The improvement in Seoul's air quality was possible through the city's efforts and the public's active participation. The city has been promoting Creating Clean and Green Seoul's project as one of its five core projects. To this end, the city has introduced CNG buses and worked to reduce the pollution caused by diesel cars.  The project to reduce pollution caused by diesel cars, initiated in 2005, has resulted in 162,000 diesel cars being fitted with emissions-lowering devices and the replacement of 86 percent – or 6,508 -- of Seoul's public buses with CNG buses.

Since 2006, Seoul has instituted a system where cars are not allowed on the road on specific days chosen by the car owners. The aim is to reduce the city's traffic congestion. To encourage participation, vehicles participating in the program receive discounts on public parking and tolls on tunnels in Seoul.  On Sept. 22, major arteries in Seoul were declared car-free streets from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. as an annual campaign to reduce the number of cars on the road and to encourage the use of public transportation.

In the aspect of factory, the government implemented several policies to help reach strengthened air quality standards, which were strengthened from 80 micrograms/m3/year and 150/day in 1993 to 50/year and 100/day in 2007. The 'Total Load Management System for Factories' addresses factory emissions, and it requires that major pollutants be reduced to half their current levels by 2014. Moreover, public parks are being used as a management effort to address air quality. Governments are expanding green space with a goal of 10 million pyeong (3.3m2 per person) by the year 2020, constructing Seoul Forest to create five separate parks and transforming dirty zones into parks.

Like this, government is being involved in many different policies and actions to solve air pollution~ In the next article, I will talk about the acts of government to solve ground pollution occurring in Seoul.