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| Participants in this year's Program on Greenhouse Gases at the opening ceremony in the Eroom Center in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of the Ministry of Environment |
By Ko Dong-hwan
The Korean environment ministry on Monday began a four-week program in Yeouido, Seoul, for representatives from 33 developing countries on how to reduce carbon emissions.
Jointly hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the "Program on Greenhouse Gases" invited 33 environment officials, from countries in Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania.
The ministry's Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center selected the participants through screening 348 candidates from 84 countries based on the candidates' academic and employment histories and IT skills.
The instructors are three Koreans and six from overseas, including those from the UNFCCC, the Austrian environment ministry and the RWA Group, an international group of experts in waste management, resource and energy efficiency.
The program teaches about measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of carbon emissions in the sectors of energy, manufacturing, agriculture and waste; guidelines from the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC); what countries must do under the 2016 Paris Agreement; and predicting carbon emissions.
The students will also tour the National Assembly and the demilitarized zone at the inter-Korean border.
Paraguayan environment and sustainable development bureau official Adriana Orrego said the program would hopefully help him contribute to improving the measuring of carbon emissions in his country.
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| Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center president Hong Dong-gon speaks during the opening ceremony of the Program on Greenhouse Gases at Eroom Center in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of the Ministry of Environment |
The greenhouse gas research center's chief Hong Dong-gon said the partnership with the UNFCCC remains imperative and unchanged in teaching developing countries how to calculate carbon emissions.
The center started solely running the teaching program in 2011. After demands from developing countries interested in carbon emission MRV increased following the Paris Agreement, the UNFCCC began working on its own program called UNFCCC Climate Action and Support Transparency Training.
When UNFCCC came across the Korean center's program, the UN climate change authority suggested the center it will support the Korean teaching program. The parties in 2017 signed a memorandum of understanding to maximize the expertise and efficacy of the program as an official UNFCCC-sponsored partnership business.
The Korean environment ministry has been promoting the program at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP), introducing its role and remarks from participants.
This year's program involves representatives from the most countries since 2011.
The program comes amid ongoing efforts by 197 participating countries of the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions and keep the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius.
The agreement takes effect in 2020, and from 2024 member states must report twice a year on their carbon emissions.
