Environmental and Economic Impacts of South Korea's Imports of U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas for Electricity Generation

South Korea plans to expand imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) to mitigate air pollution and climate change. This study assesses the environmental and economic implications of importing U.S. LNG for electricity generation in South Korea. In the first essay, I performed a life cycle assessment on greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions by considering the LNG lifecycle from extraction in the U.S. to electricity generation in South Korea and several scenarios of fuel mixes. The total GHG emissions were estimated to be 14.2 kgCO2e/MMBtu for LNG and 368 kgCO2e/MMBtu for coal. The latter emitted 1341 times more PM10 and 467 times more PM2.5 than natural gas. With the changing electricity mix targeted by 2030, GHG emissions would decrease by 33.6%, PM10 by 45.3%, and PM2.5 by 45.4%, respectively. In the second essay, I analyzed the impacts of LNG price shocks and GHG emission reductions on South Korea’s economy using a computable general equilibrium model under several scenarios representing different levels of LNG prices and GHG emission reductions. Increasing LNG prices and higher GHG emission reductions would reduce the output and increase the prices of goods and services, especially in the energy and energy-intensive sectors, including the city’s gas and natural gas sectors. Alternatively, falling LNG prices would motivate South Korea to import more LNG, reducing its GHG emissions from the electricity sector and the prices of most goods and services while boosting its domestic output. When LNG prices and GHG emissions decrease by 90% and 21%, respectively, the gross domestic output of the city gas and natural gas sectors would increase by 40.21% and 9.26%, respectively; household consumption of these two sectors would increases by 95.5% and 142.87%, respectively; and South Korean imports of LNG would increase by 43.13%. Tradeoffs between household welfare and GHG emissions exists, and the cost to reduce GHG emissions rises with larger changes in the LNG price. Overall results suggest that importing LNG will reduce air pollution and GHG emissions, and LNG price fluctuations will have a mixed effect on Korea's macroeconomy