More Biofuels Legislation: Korea Biodiesel up to 3%

September 7, 2007 SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea aims to raise biodiesel content in domestic diesel to 3 percent from the current 0.5 percent by 2012, Seoul’s energy ministry said on Friday.The news ran counter to expectations that the government may increase the ratio to 5 percent as early as next year, market watchers said.

Korean Carbon Exchange?

August 22, 2007 (The Korea Times) – Seoul air might freshen up a bit, as the government said Wednesday that a local market that buys and sells carbon dioxide emission rights will open by the end of this year, a move seen as a state effort to prevent global warming and power new growth.President Roh Moo-hyun met with policymakers during a national energy commission meeting to discuss needs to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions and ways to work around the global issue.

The carbon credit exchange is a pollution-cutting strategy that uses the market mechanism – the global Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), in which companies can basically choose between reducing their CO2 emissions or paying to continue to pollute.Backed by the United Nations, the CDM process aims to have companies contribute to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions and “sell” the results at international carbon exchange markets, including the Chicago Climate Exchange and those run by the European Union.
As one ton of carbon is traded at $10, the current size of the local CDM market is estimated at about 119.8 billion won, but the figure is expected to jump to 448.8 billion won by 2012.