The Post-2020 Climate Regime and the Korean Cement Industry: Greenhouse Gases, Energy Efficiency and Policy Implications

Among major developed countries, Korea has maintained a heavily manufacturing-oriented industrial structure. Moreover, its share of energy and material-intensive industries such as steel making, petrochemicals and cement is considerable. Accordingly, overall energy consumption levels are inevitably very high, even as the country possesses scare natural resources such as petroleum. Korean government and industries have dedicated much effort to conserving energy and increasing efficiency, and the absolute volume of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) is a fundamental issue for the country’s sustainable growth. Moreover the Korean government has proclaimed that it will reduce GHGs by 37% by 2030, according to the Paris Conference of the Parties agreement (COP21) signed in December 2015. The target has been evaluated as a very ambitious one that could be accomplished easily. Achieving such a reduction would be a large burden for Korean industries, who would have to take measures such as drastic production cuts. The cement industry was singled out for analysis in this article, as it is one of the most energy-intensive of all industries. For this research, related macroeconomic data of overall energy consumption levels are reviewed, and operating from the assumption that the global financial crisis of 2008 heavily influenced Korean energy-intensive industries, the analysis’ timescale has been divided by year. The decomposition method was used to analyze the Korean cement industry’s energy consumption. The volume-based production index was the subject of the analysis, as the traditional production index can mislead analytical results. The final section concludes with policy recommendations.