The northern part of the Korean Peninsula has greater temperature extremes because the North is

Climate change in South Korea has led to extreme weather events in South Korea that affects: social, economy, industry, culture, and many other sectors.[1] South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters, including annual temperature, rainfall amounts, and precipitation.[2]

The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons. The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly, and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased. The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change. To quickly adapt to climate change, the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation.[3][better source needed]

Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases, which are anthropogenic factors for climate change. In 2017 South Korea was the world's 7th largest emitter of carbon emissions and the 5th largest per capita.[4]

Greenhouse gas emissions[edit]

700 million tonnes of greenhouse gases was emitted in 2019.[5] As of 2021 Korea is funding construction of overseas coal power.[6]

South Korea is the ninth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Dangjin Power Station is estimated to have been the coal-fired power plant which emitted the third most carbon dioxide in 2018, at 34 million tons, and relative emissions are estimated at 1.5 kg per kWh.[7]

Impacts on the natural environment[edit]

Temperature and weather changes[edit]

Precipitation increase[edit]

Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, has 228 years of precipitation records, starting with traditional cheugugi rain gauges, which is the longest continual instrumental rainfall collection in the world. The record of daily precipitation provides a high-resolution dataset for detecting the singularity of extreme weather events and the multiple decades of precipitation variability. Precipitation was measured with cheugugi from 1778 to 1907, and modern observation equipment was developed and has been used since 1908. Comparing the cheugugi period and the modern period, the modern period shows a significant increase in mean rainfall rate. For example, statistical data for summer precipitation at cheugugi period is 861.8  mm whereas that for the modern period mean is 946.5  mm.[8]

As the amount of rainfall in the last 9 years[when?] has increased because the number of heavy rain and torrential rain events have increased in frequency, the risk of heavy rain has become much higher in the southern part of a peninsula than the central region of the Korea peninsula. A large amount of water vapour entering the southern part of the peninsula (Southern coast, Jeju Island) flows into the Yellow Sea in summer and creates a high frequency of torrential rains. On the other hand, the east coast shows a low torrential rain frequency. As of 1990, over the past 20 years and the most recent 20 years, the torrential rain frequency data show a 25% increase in torrential rain watches and a 60% increase in heavy rain warnings.[9][needs update]

Changes in precipitation[edit]

The tropical rain belt 'Changma front' is created in the Bay of Bengal and the western North Pacific as a sub-system of the East Asian Monsoon. The northward movement of the 'Changma front' is influenced by the development of the subtropical ridge.[10] This northward moving quasi-stationary front is called 'Changma' in South Korea, which represents the main precipitation period.[1][9] The 'Changma front' takes about 4 to 5 weeks to go through the Korea Peninsula. This slow movement results in a large, but steady, amount of summer rainfall over the entire Korea Peninsula in late June and July each year. In recent years,[when?] the 'Changma front' tended to move quickly, taking less than 3 weeks to go through the Korea Peninsula while pouring down heavy rain showers, along with various sizes of storms from late July to early August.[2] It means that we are having more extreme weather and localized heavy rain occurring after 'Changma'.[11] The dynamics of the 'Changma' rains in the early summer, which derive from baroclinic disturbances that are strongly modified by latent heat release, remain poorly understood. There is also another 'Changma' type which is sometimes called the 'Fall Changma'. This is not, of course, an official term from the Korea Meteorological Administration. However, this 'Fall Changma' is created due to recent climate change.[citation needed] The 'Fall Changma' starts normally in late August to early September. After the North Pacific anticyclone is entirely over in[clarification needed] the Korea Peninsula, the 'Fall Changma' is also over. This recent[when?]'Fall Changma' bring a lot more damage than the normal 'Changma' because the 'Fall Changma' pours down extreme heavy rain intensively in a short term.[12] While an increase in rainfall in the absence of the monsoonal circulation shifts is expected, relatively modest shifts or changes in timing can significantly affect East Chinese, Korean and Japanese climates.[13]

Temperature increases[edit]

Since 1999, the Korea Global Atmosphere Watch Center located at Anmyeon-do has been monitoring major greenhouse gasses (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11 and CFC-12). The Anyone-do station is located in a relatively pollution-free environment, an ideal site for observing the background atmosphere of Northeast Asia, including the Korean Peninsula. Among these GHG, CO2 acts most to change many aspects of the climate factors.[14] The CO2 concentrations at Anmyeon-do are substantially higher than the global average; the average CO2 concentration for 2011 was recorded as 395.7 ppm, an increase of 25.0 ppm (6.7%) relative to the annual average of 370.7 ppm for 1999, and 5.2 ppm higher than the global average of 390.5 ppm for the same year as documented by NOAA/GMD.[15] The annual growth rate of CO2 for the 13 years from 1999 through 2011 was 2.16 ppm/year, which was higher than the global average of 1.9 ppm/year, but it has slowed in recent years.[14]

During the industrialization era (second industrial revolution) over the past few decades, people have been burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gasoline, natural gas), which releases CO2 into the atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect.[16] A sharp temperature contrast is shown between the urban and rural areas due to this industrialization. The mean temperatures data variations observed at ten meteorological stations in South Korea show an annual mean temperature increase at a rate of 0.52 °C per decade. During the last 29 years, the increase in the annual mean temperature was 1.5 °C for the Seoul station (found in an urban area) and 0.6 °C for the rural and seashore stations. These rate differences are significantly larger over urbanized areas.[2]

South Korea is experiencing a rapid temperature increase. Higher daily maximum and minimum temperatures are very likely to increase in East Asia, resulting in more severe warm extremes, but less severe cold extremes.[13] These mean temperature increases, especially the temperature increase rate after the 1950s is 1.5 times higher than before the 1950s. The duration of winter is also projected to be a one-month shorter than before, therefore having spring and summer will be 20 days longer during the 1990s compared to what they were during the 1920s seasonal distribution.[17][needs update] When average temperature comparison for comparing 20th-century and 21st-century temperature averages, it is shown that there is a 4 °C increase. The mean yearly temperature for South Korea is 10~15 °C,[18] which means that the Korea Peninsula will soon become a subtropical region with an average temperature of over 27 °C.[citation needed] The recent subtropical zone is located on the lower seaside of the Korea Peninsula, but as accelerated temperatures increase, it will result in the subtropical zone move migrating northward. Therefore, by 2100 the subtropical zone is projected to expand its region to the north end of Taebaek Mountains.[17]

Extreme weather events[edit]

Just like other countries, Korea cannot evade the effect of climate change.[19] Increase of flooding and typhoon, and damage from them is significant in recent few decades. The damage to property and loss of lives caused by natural disasters is a typical impact of climate change. Because of this point, decreasing the natural disaster is one of the goals for nations adapting to climate change.[20] Increases in the frequency of flooding, typhoons, or hurricane intensity results in a steady increase of the number of large scales natural disasters. South Korea is not an exception. Especially, damage from flooding and typhoon is significant. Despite of the increasing threat, the vulnerability to natural disaster, especially typhoon, has been decreased possibly due to multiple factors, such as, improved disaster prevention, changed building codes, industrial structures, and land use.[21]

Impacts on people[edit]

Economic impacts[edit]

According to the map of industry distribution in Korea, it is noticeable that north-east part of the Korea does not have significant industry. High-tech, heavy and IT industries are placed near the capital, or more close to the sea in the south of Korea. Unlike the industry distribution density, according to the map of damage from natural disaster, the damage is the most dense in the north-east part of the Korea.[citation needed]

Mitigation and adaptation[edit]

Mitigation[edit]

Carbon trading[edit]

There is a carbon trading system.[22]

Green New Deal[edit]

The Green New Deal is a plan set up by the ruling party the DPK ahead of the 2020 parliament elections. The plan includes to reach zero emission by 2050, to stop providing construction for coal power plants overseas and to reduce fine dust by 40% in 2040.[23] The government also aims to achieve a target of 40% renewable power by 2034 and the replacement of some coal capacity with liquefied natural gas.[24]

The South Korean president Moon Jae in pledged in September, 2020 that South Korea would be carbon free in 2050.[25] The 2030 goal is almost a quarter reduction from 2017 levels.[26]

Society and culture[edit]

Population response[edit]

There are about 1.5 million people in South Korea that follow some sort of plant-based diet, and about 500,000 vegans who do not eat any animal products at all.[27] The most common reason blog authors cited for cutting down on meat consumption was for health, with 63.1 percent of blogs mentioning healthy cooking, followed by ethical reasons at 52.9 percent, environmental protection concerns at 36.2 percent, and wanting to lose weight at 26.3 percent.[28]

Company response: Green IT industry[edit]

A new Korean Government IT strategy project is projected to have a 20% increase in green IT and IT product by 2012 [29] by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security have already started a computational center for green energy-saving and have formulated a comprehensive plan to promote the 'energy-saving'. Through professional organizations comprehensive energy-saving, environmental protection, and budget savings procedures are in progress for energy diagnostic purposes. In addition to what has already been discussed the plan for idle shut-off, demolition equipment, and main contents as ' a green-based computational center for environmental improvement plans ' will also go ahead as scheduled.[30]

Activism[edit]

Data from 2021 showed that, for giving the world a 50% chance of avoiding a temperature rise of 2 degrees or more South Korea should increase its climate commitments by 136%.[31]: Table 1 For a 95% chance it should increase the commitments by 487%. For giving a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees South Korea should increase its commitments by 875%.[31]

See also[edit]

• Climate Justice
• Energy in South Korea
• Environmental issues in South Korea
• Climate change in North Korea

References[edit]

1. ^ a b Kim, B-J; Kripalani, R H; Oh, J-H; Moon, S-E (2002). "Summer monsoon rainfall patterns over South Korea and associated circulation features". Theor. Appl. Climatol. 72 (1–2): 65–74. Bibcode:2002ThApC..72...65K. doi:10.1007/s007040200013. S2CID 123293181.
2. ^ a b c Chung, Yong-Seung; Yoon, Ma-Byung; Kim, Hak-Sung (2004). "On Climate Variations and Changes Observed in South Korea". Climatic Change. 66 (1–2): 151–161. doi:10.1023/B:CLIM.0000043141.54763.f8. S2CID 155047946.
3. ^ www.kricccs.com //web.archive.org/web/20140523012721///www.kricccs.com/detail.php?number=682&thread=22r03r01. Archived from the original on 2014-05-23.
4. ^ Cha, Josh Smith, Sangmi (2020-06-08). "Jobs come first in South Korea's ambitious 'Green New Deal' climate plan". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
5. ^ 김나영 (2021-12-31). "S. Korea emitted 701.3 mln tons of greenhouse gas in 2019: environment ministry". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
6. ^ "Japan, South Korea to run with Viet coal plant despite climate vows". Prothomalo. 2021-01-01.
7. ^ Grant, Don; Zelinka, David; Mitova, Stefania (2021). "Reducing CO2 emissions by targeting the world's hyper-polluting power plants". Environmental Research Letters. 16 (9): 094022. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac13f1. ISSN 1748-9326.
8. ^ Wang, B., J.G. Jhun., and B.K. Moon., 2006: Variability and Singularity of Seoul, South Korea, Rainy Season (1778-2004). Journal of Climate, 20, 2572-2580
9. ^ a b Seo, K.H, and L.J. Lee., 2011: A white book of Changma. KMA., 268p. print. //www.climate.go.kr/home/bbs/view.php?bname=publicity&category1=&category2&code=25&skind=&sword=&vcode=4462
10. ^ LinHo; Wang, Bin (2002). "The Time-Space structure of the Asian-Pacific Summer Monsoon: A fast annual cycle view". J. Clim. 15 (15): 2001–2019. Bibcode:2002JCli...15.2001L. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015<2001:TTSSOT>2.0.CO;2. S2CID 53455729.
11. ^ Kim, J.E., W.T. Youn., K.S. Jo., and J.Y. Moon., 2007: Korea Climate Change and Characteristic. Korean Meteorological Society.,10, 472-473
12. ^ Article in JoongAng Ilbo
13. ^ a b Christensen, J.H., B. Hewitson, A. Busuioc, A. Chen, X. Gao, I. Held, R. Jones, R.K. Kolli, W.-T. Kwon, R. Laprise, V. Magaña Rueda, L. Mearns, C.G. Menéndez, J. Räisänen, A. Rinke, A. Sarr and P. Whetton, 2007: Regional Climate Projections. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Archived 2007-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
14. ^ a b Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 2012: Summary of Korea Global Atmosphere Watch 2011 Report. KMA, 10pp.
15. ^ "Global Monitoring Laboratory - Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases".
16. ^ "The Greenhouse Effect".
17. ^ a b Jeong, H.S., 2010: Prospect of Korea Climate change. Rural and Environmental Engineering Journal, 109, 22–30.
18. ^ "한국 > 우리나라기후 > 국내기후자료 > 기후자료 > 날씨 > 기상청". Archived from the original on 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2012-11-30.
19. ^ "우리나라 자연재해 현황". 국가기후변화정보센터. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
20. ^ "기후변화로 인한 도시 자연재해". 국가기후변화적응센터. Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
21. ^ Park, Doo-Sun R; Ho, Chang-Hoi; Nam, Chaehyeon C; Kim, Hyeong-Seog (1 May 2015). "Evidence of reduced vulnerability to tropical cyclones in the Republic of Korea". Environmental Research Letters. 10 (5): 054003. Bibcode:2015ERL....10e4003P. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/5/054003.
22. ^ "Carbon Emission-related Cost Burden Weighing on Korean Companies". Businesskorea (in Korean). 2020-12-31. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
23. ^ Stangarone, Troy. "South Korea's Green New Deal". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
24. ^ "The Carbon Brief Profile: South Korea". Carbon Brief. 2020-04-06. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
25. ^ Herald, The Korea (2020-09-08). "Moon vows to shut down 30 more coal plants to bring cleaner air and battle climate change". www.koreaherald.com. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
26. ^ 송상호 (2020-12-31). "S. Korea submits greenhouse gas reduction target to U.N. climate convention secretariat". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
27. ^ Herald, The Korea (2020-06-11). "[Weekender] Fake meat no more faux pas in Korea". www.koreaherald.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
28. ^ Gibson, Jenna. "More and More South Koreans Are Going Vegetarian". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
29. ^ Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MSF), 2009: New development vision & Strategies. Ministry of Strategy and Finance Report., 73p. //www2.korea.kr/expdoc/viewDocument.req;JSESSIONID_KOREA=H1NGQj2pf9WhG8SQt2KtNbsyYHHZPtXgJ1zHMPhGBbpzj5hlcQgS!-187360298?id=10136 Archived 2015-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
30. ^ Kim, K.J., 2008: Eco-friendly Green IT present condition & Implications: IT service industry. The Korea Development Bank, 29p. //rd.kdb.co.kr/jsp/re/content/REIss0101_3893.jsp[permanent dead link]
31. ^ a b R. Liu, Peiran; E. Raftery, Adrian (9 February 2021). "Country-based rate of emissions reductions should increase by 80% beyond nationally determined contributions to meet the 2 °C target". Communications Earth & Environment. 2. doi:10.1038/s43247-021-00097-8. PMC 8064561. PMID 33899003.

External links[edit]

• South Korea: CO2 Country Profile at Our World in Data
• South Korea at Climate Action Tracker
• Korea Meteorological Administration
• Korea Research Institute of Climate Change
• Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment website

How does the climate of the northern part of the Korean Peninsula differ from that of the southern part?

How does the land on the Korean Peninsula change from north to south?

Why are North and South Korea so different?

What climate type does most of the areas in North Korea have?