On 17 May, the Republic of Korea’s Cabinet adopted a variety of changes to the Korean emissions trading scheme (KETS). These changes had first been announced in February. The amendments to the green growth and carbon emissions trading ordinances give the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OGPC) under the Prime Minister overall control over the KETS and the country’s climate change policies more broadly. Prior to this, the Ministry of Environment had had exclusive responsibility for the KETS (Korea Herald). Allocation in the KETS will be coordinated by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, while the Ministry of Environment, alongside the ministries of finance, agriculture and transport are tasked with enforcing the KETS.
In addition, efforts have been made to increase the supply of allowances in the Korean market to ease the pressure on entities that are short of allowances. Firstly, the share of allowances companies can borrow for compliance was doubled. Until now, companies could only use 10% of their allowances from the subsequent year to meet their compliance obligations in a given year; a share that has now been increased to 20%. Secondly, an additional 900,000 allowances were offered from the Allowance Reserve at a floor price of around EUR 12. Finally, 2.3 million Korean Offset Credits were also added to the market.
