Korea, Republic of

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Revision as of 15:55, 14 March 2012

South_Korea
Flag of South_Korea
Population (In Millions)	49.78
Human Development Index	15/169
Gross Domestic Product (In USD Billions - World Bank)	1,116.25
Global Peace Index	50/153
Happy Planet Index	68/143
Social Institutions and Gender Index	- /86
Environmental Performance Index	94/163
Child Mortality Rate	4.1
More information on variables

Republic of Korea

Main Progress Initiatives

Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development (PCSD) of Korea

Established in 2000, the PCSD is an advisory board whose mission covers:

• Matters related to establishing direction and planning of major policy for which development and conservation should be taken into consideration simultaneously.

• Matters related to the formulation and implementation of the plans to put into practice the Agenda 21 adopted at the UNCED.

• Matters related to the domestic implementation schemes of and corresponding strategies to major international conventions on environment including UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

• Other matters on environment-friendly and sustainable development for which the President may request advice

Special Measures for Air Quality Improvement in the Seoul Metropolitan Area

The Special Measures for Air Quality Improvement in the Seoul Metropolitan Area aims at improving air quality in the Capital Region (12% of South Korea but 47% of its population) to average OECD-levels in ten years. Key features include a total maximum loading system of pollutants, an emission trading system and enhancement of low emission vehicle supply. In this context, the EcoVehicle-Choice-Program has been designed to initiate green vehicle purchasing by disclosing emission discharge information on all domestic vehicles and models online.

Official Statistics and well-being

The Social Survey

 The Social Survey published every 2 years by the Korea National Statistical Office, is designed to understand quality of life and social changes to provide basic data for the establishment of social development policies by measuring social interest and subjective opinions in relation to people's quality of life. This biennial survey focuses on ten sectors: Family, Income & Consumption, Labor, Education, Health Care, Environment, Welfare, Culture & Leisure, Safety, and Social Participation.

Sample finding from the Korean 2009 Social Survey

• 44% surveyed said care for the elderly needed to be expanded.
• 53% of Koreans were not dissatisfied with their level of income, as opposed to 46% in 2007.
• 36% of Koreans thought the possibility of raising their socioeconomic status was high, and 48% believed it was high for their children.^[1]

Korea and quality of life measures at the Conference: Two years after the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report: What well-being and sustainability measures?

In his presentation at the Conference: Two years after the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report: What well-being and sustainability measures? on 12 October, 2011, Commissioner Ki-Jong Woo of the Korea National Statistical Office elaborated on current Social Survey research and findings on the well-being of Koreans. He noted that:

• Measuring well-being in Korea includes quality of individual lives and also the quality of society. This is measured by a combination of objective and subjective measures.
• The framework puts the individual citizen in the center then the society and then the environment.
• The framework comprises 9 domains and 111 indicators.
• The goal is for an active community that takes care of each other to promote social cohesion. Korea reported that social cohesion is a priority there as well as the environment.
• Korea is prioritising the distribution of social welfare and also resource efficiency.
• In terms of challenges, some of the indicators proved to be difficult. The example cited was that divorce rates may have a negative impact on the family but a positive impact on personal freedom.
• For Korea, the Easterlin Paradox could be evoked, in that while in the last 30 years objective living standards have increased, there has been a decrease in satisfaction with quality of life.
• The findings of the Korean Social Survey also point to weakened social vitality, low fertility rates, rapid ageing rising suicide rate. including economic growth, democratisation, and new social problems. Korea´s social conditions have therefore made it imperative to measure quality of life.
• The applicability of these findings to policy making would rely on the robustness of measurements, logical clarity of methodology and empirical validity of measures.
• One of the questions for moving forward with research would include: What is the role of National Statistics Offices in measuring well-being and what is its realistic boundary?

Korea and Green Growth

The Framework Act for Low Carbon Green Growth was passed by the Republic of Korea's National Assembly in early 2010 to establish a comprehensive legal framework of relevant policies to foster the development of green technology and industries, to create new green jobs, to respond to climate change, to control energy targets, to promote a green lifestyle for citizens and to promote sustainable development.This Five Year Green Growth Plan involves $87 billion dollars, 2% of GDP, of spending from 2009-2013.^[2]

• Korea would like to foster "green" energy sources for reasons of energy independence; as of 2010, as much as 97% of Koreas total energy demand was via fossil fuel imports.^[3]
• The three key objectives of Korea's green growth strategy are:

1. Creating new enginges of a higher and sustainable growth path by developing low-carbon, environmentally-friendly industries;
2. Ensuring climatic and environmental sustainabilty; and
3. Contributing to the international negotiations to fight climate change. ^[3]

Happiness in Korea, Republic of (South)

This is an overview of findings on Happiness in Korea, Republic of (South).The available findings are presented in the latest ‘Nation Report’ on Korea, Republic of (South)^[4]. This report is ordered by type of happiness questions and within these types by year. This ordering is to facilitate the assessment of progress, comparison over time being most fruitful using the same questions.
The report presents means and standard deviations, both on the original scale range and transformed to a common range 0-10. The means inform about the level of happiness in the country and the standard deviations about inequality of happiness.
Links provide more detail about the precise text of the question, the full distribution of responses and technical details of the survey. The report is continuously updated.

Progress Papers and Publications

• The Korean National Strategy for Sustainable Development: A Background Report

• Social Indicators and Social Statistics Survey in Korea, 2007, Korea National Statistical Office, Korea.

• Development of Statistics for Environmental Protection Expenditures and Revenues, 2004, The Bank of Korea, Korea.

• Development of ICT Indicators in Korea, 2001, Kyung Ae PARK, Korea National Statistical Office, Korea.

• Korea's Green Growth Strategy, 2010, Jones, R.S. and B. Yoo, OECD, Paris.

• Brazil and Korea on Green Growth, 2010, Fujita, Seoul.

References

1. ↑ Statistics Korea. (2009, Dec 3). 2009 Social Survey. Retrieved Fed 2, 2011, from Statistics Korea: http://kostat.go.kr/portal/english/news/1/8/index.board?bmode=read&bSeq=&aSeq=68944&pageNo=1&rowNum=10&navCount=10&currPg=&sTarget=title&sTxt=
2. ↑ UNESCAP. (2010, May). Green Growth Initiatives in and beyond the region. Retrieved Feb 2, 2011, from Green Growth: http://www.greengrowth.org/gg-initiative.asp
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Edmundo, F., Mauricio, L., & Daniel, F. (2010). Brazil and Korea on Green Growth - Elements for a cooperation agenda based on science, technology and innovation. Seoul.
4. ↑ Happiness in Korea