Issue Reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 without undermining energy security

Summary

Climate change, the environment and energy are described as enormous challenges threatening human survival that future generations will face, so their concern is bound to be higher than that of older generations. A 2024 EAI survey shows young Koreans regarding fine dust as a major threat, a perception that differs from that of older cohorts. For Japan and Korea, both heavily dependent on fossil fuels, the biggest future challenge is carbon neutrality by 2050. Following the Paris Agreement, the two countries declared 2050 carbon neutrality two days apart in 2020 and wrote the goal into law, and their nationally determined contributions pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by 40 percent from 2018 levels for Korea and 46 percent from 2013 levels for Japan. How quickly they can achieve an energy transition for climate response without undermining energy security is presented as a grave common task.