The government plans mandatory targets of carbon emissions for five energy-intensive industries ― steel, electronics, petrochemicals, cement and refining. The sectors account for about 88 percent of the total emissions reduction under the program.

By company, POSCO tops the list, followed by Samsung Electronics, LG Display, Hyundai Steel, Samsung Mobile Display, Ssangyong Cement Industrial, LG Chem, S-Oil, SK Energy and Tongyang Cement & Energy. The 10 firms account nearly 30 percent.

POSCO, responsible for about 10 percent of the nation’s entire emissions, is developing high-efficient, eco-friendly technologies. The steel giant vowed to slash its emissions by 9 percent by 2020 from the 2007-9 average level.

Pivotal to its efforts is FINEX skill, which by switching to such raw materials as iron ore fines and non-coking coal could boost productivity, lower costs and cut emissions by up to 50 percent compared with conventional blast furnaces.

Samsung Electronics pledged in 2009 to halve its emissions volume by 2013 compared with 2008 levels with an investment worth 5.4 trillion won ($4.8 billion) in related research and facilities.

LG Group aims to bring down its emissions by 14 million metric tons this year and raise the volume to 30 million before 2020. Last week, it unveiled a 50-percent cut target in the U.S. for 2020 by expanding the use of renewable energy, recycling and reducing power consumption in factories and offices.

Hyundai Motor installed an emissions monitoring system last year as part of its five-year roadmap. Starting at three plants here, the automaker plans to expand the scheme to research labs, service centers, sales units and office buildings, while developing compact electric cars for 2014.

Hyundai Heavy Industries started last year running a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine at its headquarters in Ulsan to supply electricity to its shipyard. It also set up a greenhouse gas inventory to monitor and catalog its emissions flows.

GS Caltex said it saves 23.1 billion won and 98,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by optimizing heat exchange networks and putting a freezer into its vacuum distillation facilities to reduce the use of steam.

S-Oil Corp. has been partnering with LS-Nikko Copper Inc. since 2008 to bring in 500,000 metric tons of steam recovered from waste heat every year for its refining business. Through the deal, the refiner curbs the use of heavy Bunker C oil and saves costs from cheaper steam supplies, and the copper smelter generates extra income.

Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are striving to boost fuel efficiency by optimizing aircraft speed, weight load and altitude when mapping out flight routes. They have also been increasingly turning to more economic airliners such as Airbus’s A380 and Boeing’s 787 and 747-8 Intercontinental.

To ease financial and technical burdens for smaller firms, meanwhile, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy runs a program under which major corporations help their suppliers trace their emissions and draw up collective measures to trim it down. LG Electronics, LS Cable, Homeplus, Amore Pacific and Woongjin Coway are among the participants.

By Shin Hyon-hee(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)