Sustainable Development Goals in the Republic of Korea

Tae Yong Jung

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138478893
• eBook ISBN: 9781351067034
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores the attempts of South Korea in its to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It addresses 6 of the 17 goals – clean water, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, and partnership – and defines specific national strategies. For each strategy, the contributors define the research indicators they selected, then analyze and examine the extent to which South Korea has met the SDG concerned. They draw these conclusions from national and international reports, government documents and policy papers on SDGs. South Korea's experience in sustainable development and green programs will contribute to the planning of long-term development strategies for developing countries.

Part I

SDGs in Republic of Korea’s context

1 Introduction

In-Kook Park

Since the need for ‘sustainable development’ was first raised by the United Nations Human Environment Council in 1972, it took more than 40 years for SDGs to be formulated. In the history of sustainable development, 1972 is an important milestone that marks the establishment of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) through the Stockholm Declaration and the publication of The Limits to Growth in support of the need for sustainable development. The Limits to Growth warned that existing human activities could have a very devastating effect on the environment (Meadows et al. 1972) and stressed that if such economic activity continued, it would be fatal to future generations. Discussions for resolving this problem have required dialogue at the national and international levels. Through the UN Human Environment Conference, the UN not only addressed the world about the environmental degradation caused by economic development but also established the UNEP to promote international cooperation. Although the UNEP was only a mere program and was not implemented in a full-fledged governance regime, it was still significant as the beginning of a full-scale sustainable development agenda.

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Halel Brundtland, was established and produced a report titled Our Common Future. This report presented the conceptual framework of sustainable development. This report is remarkable in that it defined sustainable development as not being confined to environmental protection, but as a multifaceted approach that takes economic, social, and human factors into consideration. Though these three factors were not considered as important at that time, it is noteworthy that the Brundtland report raised these three factors as essential for sustainable development. For the purposes of “human activity, development, and better life” mentioned in the report, the UN published Agenda 21 in 1992 (United Nations 1992, p. 16). Although Agenda 21 has been criticized as unrealistic for incorporating too many agendas, it is significant for not only presenting a common goal and vision for sustainable development but for also dealing with economic and social development, in addition to environmental preservation (e.g. child welfare, human rights, and women’s capacity building). Our Common Future is considered to be the forbearer of the current SDGs framework. Moreover, considering that this is the agenda that the UN and its member countries proactively initiated after the end of the Cold War, it could be considered as an agenda for a new era of international development cooperation. Despite the widespread expectation that ODA and international cooperation would increase on a large scale at the end of the Cold War, I personally observed a dramatic decrease in ODA, and the international community has recognized this as a big crisis. This, in turn, accelerated the formulation of Agenda 21, which then led to the establishment of the MDGs. Furthermore, Agenda 21 has profoundly impacted the formulation of the agenda for sustainable development in each member country of the UN. Particularly, it provided the motivation for cooperation between civil society and the government in establishing a common agenda for sustainable development. For instance, in the ROK, Agenda 21 allowed the PCSD to be established and the basic law on sustainable development to be enacted under the Dae-Jung Kim administration.

Meanwhile, in September of 2000, at the dawn of a new millennium, heads of state and government gathered together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, building on a decade of important UN conferences and summits, to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration (United Nations 2015). The Declaration encouraged nations to build a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set out a series of eight time-bounded targets with a deadline of 2015 that have become known as the MDGs. Based on the belief that globalization at present has brought about very uneven distribution in the world, heads of state and government recognized that developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties in responding to the central challenge. They believed that only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared future could globalization be made fully inclusive and equitable. Thus, efforts must include policies and measures, at the global level, that correspond to the needs of developing countries and economies in transition and are formulated and practiced with their effective participation. Consequently, MDGs contain certain fundamental values essential to international relations in the twenty-first century (UN General Assembly 2015).

But progress has been uneven across regions and countries, leaving millions of people behind, especially the poorest and those disadvantaged due to sex, age, disability, ethnicity, or geographic location (UN Department of Public Information 2012). If China had not made such significant progress in implementing the MDGs, the results of those goals could have been even worse. Moreover, the 2007–2008 financial crisis negatively impacted overall economic performance and exacerbated income inequality, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. This is where SDGs are expected to play an important part. Based on the achievements and limitations of MDGs, the international community began discussing the establishment of SDGs during the preparation of the Rio +20 Summit in 2012. At its sixth plenary meeting, on June 22, 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development adopted the outcome document, entitled The Future We Want. SDGs will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years, beginning with the historic pledge on September 25, 2015 that stressed everything from zero poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and affordable clean energy, to decent work and economic growth, innovation, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, climate action, unpolluted oceans and land, and partnerships to achieve the goals.

According to the SDGs, sustainable development is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987). All current activities for development are viewed as a process of change that takes future needs into consideration through institutional improvements, technology, resources, and environmental protection. Development considering the needs of the future will be made possible only when the three major axes – ‘social development, economic growth, environment preservation’ – are harmonized. Moreover, the SDGs were proposed to achieve a balanced development of those three pillars.

From 2013, the UN began working on establishing the SDG framework for full-fledged negotiations through the Open Working Group, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. The then secretary-general, Ki-Moon Ban, is said to have played a pivotal role in developing the SDG framework (UN Department of Public Information 2016). Also during his tenure of office, Mr. Ban presided over the Paris Climate Change Conference, considered a triumph for people, the planet, and for multilateralism, and a stepping-stone to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The UN chose 17 goals in 2014 for the final draft, and the SDGs, with 17 goals and 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues, emerged. At first, the SDG had ten goals, which was fewer than the current 17 SDG goals because too many goals were considered too difficult for the common people to memorize and understand. It was also due to fact that if the goals were considered too ambitious, there might be difficulty achieving them by 2030. The SDGs highlight several new values, such as inclusiveness, universality, and equality, along with the existing MDGs that emphasize poverty eradication. The SDGs also strengthen the goals of sustainable economic growth and environmental conservation as well as social development. This is the result of efforts by many stakeholders to participate in discussions over a relatively long period of time and strike a balance between the three pillars of sustainable development (UN News Center 2015).

Each country, and the global community, faces a different level of challenges that could be tackled, depending on the priority of the agenda and issues under the framework of the SDGs. The next task is how to monitor and evaluate the performance of effective implementation of SDGs in order to achieve a sustainable society locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

The objective of this edited book is to analyze the ROK’s efforts towards realizing sustainable development prior to and after its commitment to the 2030 Agenda. It describes the social, economic, and environmental conditions of the ROK, identifying the SDGs most relevant to these conditions and demonstrating institutions, policies, and stakeholders for the implementation of those goals. This book especially suggests unique statistical measures to analyze systematically compiled data for those environmentally focused SDGs and examines the trajectory of the ROK’s past and future in achieving the SDGs.

This book is organized into ten chapters. Of the UN’s 17 SDGs, it focuses on some of the more environmental goals of the SDGs, discussing clean water, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, and partnership for the SDGs in the ROK. The following chapters discuss the ROK’s current performance and its integration of sustainable development objectives into the national framework from the perspective of domestic measures, and how to prepare a roadmap for the design of SDGs strategies; in addition, they provide a set of efficient definitions and the implementation of national strategies – key barriers and opportunities – to support the focus areas of the SDGs that are all related and interconnected.

References

Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens. 1972. The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe Books.

United Nations. 1992. “United Nations Conference on Environment & Development Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992 Agenda 21.” Accessed November 13, 2017. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf

United Nations. 2015. “Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Beyond 2015.” Accessed November 13, 2017. www.un.org/millenniumgoals/bkgd.shtml

United Nations Department of Public Information. 2012. “The Millennium Development Goals Report.” Accessed November 13, 2017. www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Press%20Release%20MDG%20Report%202012.pdf

United Nations Department of Public Information. 2016. “Ban Ki-Moon Announces Common Ground Initiative with Advertising’s ‘Big Six’ to Support SDGs.” Accessed December 5, 2017. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/06/ban-ki-moon-announces-common-ground-initiative-with-advertisings-big-six-to-support-sdgs/

United Nations General Assembly. 2000. “Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly.” Accessed November 14, 2017. www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf

United Nations News Center. 2015. “Sustainable Development Goals Kick off with Start of New Year.” Accessed November 13, 2017. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-start-of-new-year/

World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. “Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.” Accessed December 10, 2017. www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf

2 Methodology for evaluating ROK’s progress in the SDGs

Tae Yong Jung, Jung Hee Hyun, and Dahyun Kang

The vast literature on SDGs describe it as a multi-dimensional concept that is captured by numerous predefined sub-targets and indicators. Yet, a quantitative methodology designed to evaluate the performance of SDGs across countries based on a common scale ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgement
• Part I SDGs in Republic of Korea’s context
• Part II Analysis on SDGs in Korea
• Part III Conclusion
• Index