”Green Growth”:South Korea’s Panacea?

To overcome the global economic crisis, many governments enacted comprehensive stimulus packages in the beginning of 2009. Parts of these recovery plans were devoted to ‘green’ economic programmes to account for the environmental sustainability of future growth policies. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, two-thirds of these ‘green’ stimulus packages have been committed in the Asia-Pacific region. South Korea’s ‘green’ share of its recovery scheme amounts to 80 percent, which represents the largest share in the world. This ‘green’ stimulus package is part of the country’s so-called Low Carbon Green Growth strategy, which President Lee Myung-bak announced on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Korea. ‘Green Growth’ was accordingly set to become South Korea’s development paradigm for the coming decades. However, the ‘Green Growth’ concept appears to be double-edged, raising questions the government has not answered yet. This paper examines the objectives of ‘Green Growth’ and reviews the implications of this strategy on other policy areas. It identifies potential pitfalls and raises questions regarding the consistency of the concept itsel