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Phase 1: Ancillary Benefits Due to GHG Mitigation
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History and Objectives
IES programs for
- Team
- Methodology
- Outcomes
- Study Results
- Meetings and Presentations
- Documents
- Links
History and Objectives
The IES-Republic of Korea program, initiated in February 1999, is a collaboration among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment, the Korean Environment Institute (KEI), and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). The objective of the program is to assess and quantify the environmental and public health benefits resulting from integrated measures to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local air pollution. The program enhances in-country capacity to conduct co-benefits analysis and assists with policy evaluation for integrated planning.
Two IES-Republic of Korea projects have been conducted to date, and a third project is in planning stages. The first project applied a bottom-up impact analysis approach to evaluate the benefits from integrated mitigation policies and measures in the metropolitan area of Seoul, Korea. The second project evaluated the health and GHG impacts from the Seoul Air Quality Management Plan, and compared them with the expected health and GHG impacts from selected GHG reduction measures. Results from the second IES-Republic of Korea project were released in mid-2007.
Team
The lead institution for IES work in Korea is the KEI, which is a government-funded research institute affiliated with the Office of the Prime Minister.
For the first phase of the project, which was completed in 2001, the principal investigator, Dr. Seunghun Joh, led work on energy and mitigation scenarios for the project. Professor Joohon Sung of Kangwon National University led the air pollution health effects work; Professor Young Chul Shin of Daejin University conducted the economic valuation; and Dr. Shang-Gyoo Shim of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) headed the air quality modeling portion of the project.
Methodology
The initial phase (1999-2001) of the IES project focused on estimating and assessing health benefits based on air quality improvements and a modest associated GHG reduction (5 to 15 percent GHG reductions from the baseline by 2020) measures in the Seoul metropolitan area. The initial mitigation measures considered were derived for Seoul from a report by the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE). These no- or low-cost measures primarily focused on energy efficiency and use of compressed natural gas for vehicles. This study utilized directly emitted particulate matter (PM10) as the indicator pollutant, which Korean researchers estimate would lead to about 50 percent of total air pollution health impacts in Seoul.
Study Results
The final assessment (PDF) (179 pp, 4.6MB, About PDF) of the first phase of work, released in mid-2001, found that implementing integrated measures in Seoul between 2000 and 2020 would result in cumulative health benefits of up to $1.03 billion (U.S. $1999), a significant figure when considering the very low costs of the mitigation measures examined. The assessment also estimated that these integrated measures for Korea’s energy sector could avoid 40 to 120 premature deaths and 2,800 to 8,400 cases of asthma and other respiratory diseases in 2020 alone. The values are considered conservative due to limitations in the study, which tended to underestimate benefits, since it only accounted for benefits resulting from reductions in PM10
Meetings and Presentations
The IES-Republic of Korea team has presented results of the initial study at multiple venues. In March 2000, Korean researchers presented these results in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Expert Workshop on Assessing the Ancillary Benefits and Costs of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Strategies in Washington, D.C. In September 2000, the team issued a final project report that covered a discussion of the methodology employed, scenarios developed, air quality analysis, health impacts analysis, and valuation and a summary of the outcome of the policymakers’ meeting.
In October 2000, leaders conducted a policymaker review workshop in Seoul, and in December 2000, the team issued a final synthesis report of the project. Korea also participated in a side-event on IES at the Sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) in November 2000. The team presented a review of the project and a detailed summary of the air quality analysis model and results for the project at the Air & Waste Management Association’s International Urban Infrastructure Forum in June 2001.
In September 2001, the team gave a presentation on the program at the annual meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). Articles on the IES program and the results for Korea were published in an ISEE book as well as the Asian Environmental Newsletter.
The Republic of Korea also participated in EPA’s IES Program Workshop on International Air Pollution and Energy/Climate Policy Collaboration, conducted as part of the 14th Conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiologists, held in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2002. In November 2002, the Republic of Korea presented at EPA’s and China’s Energy Research Institute–sponsored Economic and Environmental Modeling Workshop in Beijing and at the Ministry-of-Environment–sponsored Policymakers Workshop in Seoul.
In 2003, the Republic of Korea participated in EPA’s IES Program’s Third Annual Forum on Air Pollution and Public Health: Symposium Topic: Socio-Economic Factors and Air Pollution Health Effects, in Perth, Australia, as well as the 2003 Better Air Quality for Asian Cities Conference, where it presented "Carbon Tax Versus Air Pollution Tax: Which Is More Effective in Controlling Air Pollution and Climate Change in Korean.
Outcomes
IES work has inspired increased interest in integrated strategies among researchers and policymakers in Korea. Government officials from MOCIE, MOE, and the Korean legislature attended the policymakers' workshop and reached a consensus that the results of this project were very useful for policymaking for both air quality management at the local level and associated GHG mitigation at the national level. Government officials noted that the project demonstrated the potential for real, positive economic and social benefits from mitigation scenarios and commended the project’s efforts to provide these estimates. Policymakers also saw the potential to use results from the study to develop cost-effective integrated strategies to address both local air quality and associated GHG emissions.
Based on initial interest in results from the Seoul IES study, MOE funded KEI to conduct a national-level study using the IES methodology developed by the initial project for Seoul. A report of the results from this study was released in July 2001. The national study concluded that more than two-thirds of the costs of reducing carbon emissions by 10 percent in 2010 would be offset by health co-benefits and result in substantial local and global environmental benefits. The national study generated much interest and lively debate within the Korean policy community.
MOE designated air quality as its priority theme for 2002. Air quality has become an important issue in Korea, and the government has begun to take remedial action. The arrival of the World Cup soccer matches in summer 2002 further prompted the government to improve air quality. Korea’s largest environmental nongovernmental organization - the Korea Federation of Environmental Movements - launched a national public outreach campaign on air quality. A major Korean daily newspaper was a partner in the campaign and published 24 articles on air quality, sometimes drawing a link to climate policy. The IES-Republic of Korea principal investigator was a member of the campaign’s steering committee and participated in a national seminar under the campaign where he presented results from the IES study in April 2002.
Documents
Contains documents generated through Phase 1 of the IES-Republic of Korea analysis.
Links
Korea Environment Institute (KEI) 
KEI, a government-funded research institution founded in 1991 by the Republic of Korea government, seeks to research and develop environmental policies and technology; professionally assess environmental impact statements; and contribute to the prevention and resolution of environmental problems. This institute is the lead in-country partner for the IES-Republic of Korea effort.
Integrated Environmental Strategies-South Korea
This Web site, in Korean, describes the IES-Republic of Korea program.