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Reforming Environmental Regulation: Policy Options to Promote Green Technologies

The Green growth strategy was adopted by the Korean government in 2009 as the new national vision for the next 40 years. Presently, the strategy is being actively implemented through well-organized action plans called, “three key objectives and ten policy directions.” The three key objectives of the strategy include creating new engines of higher sustainable growth through the development of low-carbon, environmentally-friendly industries; ensuring climatic and environmental sustainability; and contributing to international negotiations whose purpose is to fight climate change.

Improvements in environmental and economic efficiency are vital in the effort to move toward a green economy, and the deployment of best existing technologies, whenever they are available, is the key to green growth. From the perspective of green innovation, the ideal policy instruments would provide continuous incentives to develop and adopt green technologies and drive down the cost of environmental protection. According to good empirical evidence, market-based instruments are more likely to induce innovation than command-and-control regulations.

In this study, we assessed the current status of environmental regulations from the point of view of green innovation and technology deployment, and several options to improve the institutional framework for green innovation in waste management and water/air pollution control in Koreaareconsideredforevaluations.