Climate issues return to presidential campaign spotlight

Climate action has emerged as a key issue in the lead-up to South Korea’s June 3 presidential election, with leading candidates from both the liberal Democratic Party of Korea and the conservative People Power Party unveiling policy pledges centered on achieving a low-carbon future.

The two front-runners — Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party — acknowledge the urgency of addressing climate change. However, their proposals diverge sharply in terms of energy mix, structural governance and overall strategy, as seen in their campaign platforms released earlier this week.

Lee Jae-myung has placed a strong focus on phasing out coal and expanding renewable energy, saying he would “accelerate the transition to renewables.”

His platform, released Monday, calls for shutting down all coal-fired power plants by 2040, a more ambitious timeline than the current government’s plan to shut 28 out of 59 plants by 2036. It also seeks to increase public participation in clean energy through “solar and wind pensions,” which distribute profits from renewable projects to residents.

Additionally, Lee pledges to boost South Korea’s export competitiveness in key carbon-neutral industries, including solar, wind, batteries, electrolysis technology and heat pumps, while accelerating the nationwide adoption of electric vehicles.

Lee's campaign has not made a firm statement regarding the future of nuclear power, but he suggested in a recent debate that neither a full phaseout nor a nuclear-centered approach is realistic.

By contrast, Kim Moon-soo proposes a significant expansion of nuclear energy.

Building on the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s plan to construct six new large reactors, he pledges to raise the share of nuclear power in the national energy mix to 60 percent.

Kim also vows to commercialize small modular reactors, emphasizing nuclear development as a national strength and pledging to “make South Korea an energy powerhouse through world-class nuclear technology.”

In addition to his nuclear-centered plan, Kim pledges to improve the integration of renewable energy into the national grid by building a more sophisticated energy infrastructure, linking expressways, national routes and local networks like an “energy highway” to increase efficiency.

Beyond energy strategy, the two candidates also differ in how they approach climate-related environmental management and policy governance.

Lee's platform calls for “rewilding” the country’s four major rivers, reversing the large-scale river engineering projects implemented under the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, and restoring natural ecosystems.

It also supports achieving South Korea’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target under the Paris Agreement, including measures to increase the proportion of paid allocations in the national emissions trading scheme to expand climate response funding.

Kim, on the other hand, focuses on building national resilience against climate-related disasters. He proposes upgrading the Environment Ministry into the Ministry of Climate and Environment with enhanced cross-agency coordination.

Kim's pledges include building early warning systems, reinforcing climate-adaptive infrastructure and adopting AI-based disaster prediction systems.

Minor party candidates have also laid out their own climate agendas.

Kwon Young-guk of the minor Democratic Labor Party presents the most aggressive climate targets.

He calls for a 70 percent emissions reduction by 2035 and a 60 percent renewable energy share by the same year. His plan includes a full nuclear phaseout by 2040, a ban on extending the lifespan of existing reactors, and the repeal of nuclear promotion laws.

Kwon also proposes establishing a Ministry of Climate and Energy, consolidating all KEPCO subsidiaries into a single public renewable corporation, and redirecting investment from SMRs toward renewables and energy storage.

Meanwhile, Lee Jun-seok of the minor conservative New Reform Party has not mentioned climate or environmental issues in his core pledges. His platform includes a government restructuring plan that would merge the Environment Ministry with the Land Ministry, but it contains no explicit climate goals.

The increased attention to climate and energy issues also reflects growing public interest in environmental leadership.

A survey conducted in April by the civic group Climate Politics Wind found that more than half of the 4,480 respondents aged 18 and older identified as “climate citizens” — individuals willing to engage in political action to demand stronger climate policies from governments and corporations.

The National Election Debate Commission has also included “climate crisis” as an official topic in the televised presidential debate scheduled for May 23, marking the first time the issue will appear on the agenda since such debates began in 1997.