Suwon, 'Environmental Capital,' Traces 10 Years of Foundation Building

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Over the past 10 years, Suwon City has achieved remarkable results in environmental initiatives and earned recognition as an 'Environmental Capital.'

Since the 'Environmental Capital Suwon Declaration' in September 2011, it is no exaggeration to say that Suwon's 10-year journey—marked by environmental initiatives in administrative sectors and pioneering collaborative efforts with international organizations and local governments including ICLEI and the Global Covenant of Mayors—has been a time of establishing itself as an 'Environmental Capital.'

We highlight 'Environmental Capital Suwon,' which strives to transform itself into an eco-friendly city where humans and nature coexist together, aiming for '2030 Sustainable Development' centered on clean energy, biodiversity, and sustainability.

◇Environmental Capital Suwon Declaration: Laying the Foundation

Suwon City, the largest local government with a population of 1.25 million among all basic municipal authorities nationwide, began dreaming of becoming an 'Environmental Capital' 10 years ago when environmentalist Mayor Yeom Tae-young took office.

The foundation for the Environmental Capital was established through the 'Environmental Capital Suwon Declaration' announced on September 26, 2011, by public institutions including Suwon City and Suwon City Council as well as civic organizations including the Suwon Agenda 21 Steering Committee.

The declaration included reflections on how 'the cause of global environmental crisis stems from the desires of people who pursued material affluence beyond environmental capacity limits' and how 'Suwon citizens recognize the need for changes in the city's spatial planning, policies, and the overall lifestyle of citizens.'

Notably, the declaration concretized a goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 40% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, demonstrating the resolve that environmental considerations will be prioritized in all sectors of Suwon City, including green administration, green management, and green living.

The commitment to creating an Environmental Capital was also reflected in organizational changes in Suwon. In 2012, the city established the Climate and Air Quality Division to take charge of climate change and energy administration, currently operating the Climate Change Policy Team, Air Environment Team, Fine Dust Response Team, Energy Management Team, and New and Renewable Energy Team.

Teams responsible for eco-friendly efforts are operating across administrative sectors, managing parks and green spaces, constructing eco-friendly housing, promoting green buildings, developing ecological transportation such as cycling, and improving the urban environment.

Comprehensive mid- and long-term implementation plans were also reviewed from multiple angles. The city developed five-year climate change response plans in 2011 and 2016, and continued efforts toward development without environmental damage through mid- and long-term plans including the 2016-2025 Suwon City Environmental Conservation Plan.

The steps toward Environmental Capital are receiving recognition. ▲2013 Korean Green Climate Award Excellence Prize (National Assembly Climate Change Forum) ▲2013 GreenStart Network Competition Excellence Prize (Ministry of Environment, GreenStart National Network) ▲2013-2014 CDP Climate Change Response Leading Local Government Award (CDP, Korea Productivity Center) ▲2015 World Environmental City Award Korea Division (WWF-Korea, World Wildlife Fund Korea) ▲2014-2015, 2017 Public Sector Target Management Implementation Excellence Institution, selected and awarded three times (Ministry of Environment) and other tangible results have been achieved.

Additionally, the city has presented excellent greenhouse gas policy cases at environmental ministry-hosted events and international conferences, and was selected as a target city for joint research projects on low-carbon and sustainable development-oriented cities among Korea, China, and Japan, producing results recognized as an Environmental Capital.

◇The Environmental Capital Dream Shared and Spreading to Other Cities

Suwon's Environmental Capital initiatives have continued internationally. While participating in various international cooperation programs established to address climate change, the city has elevated its status as an eco-friendly city and is disseminating this to other domestic local governments.

Suwon City, which has participated in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) for Sustainability since 2005, has operated the Korean office in Suwon since October 2012 and has held major global events including Suwon Eco-Mobility 2013.

The city also formally signed the Mexico City Pact in June 2011, joining the Climate Registry (cCR, a system where participants in the Global Covenant of Mayors on Climate report performance management and other results regularly), and has been participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2013.

The city also joined the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), the largest-scale council established at the UN Climate Change Summit, in September 2015, completed application and verification of the international standard protocol for greenhouse gas inventory (GPC), and completed submission of climate change adaptation and resilience reports as well as phased implementation.

The city has also led collaboration among local governments for joint climate change response. As the second-term chair city (2019) of the Local Government Conference for Energy Policy Transition, which was established in December 2016 to shift the formulation and implementation of energy policies to the local level through inter-municipal exchange and cooperation, Suwon led forums and overseas policy research tours to lay the foundation for energy autonomous decentralization.

Furthermore, Suwon City is taking a leading role in forming the 'Carbon Neutral City Local Government Action Council,' which is being promoted with a target of launching this year to realize bottom-up carbon neutrality achievement from local governments.

◇Suwon: A Sustainable City Where Humans and Nature Coexist

Suwon City's efforts toward Environmental Capital have been refined more concretely through the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Last year, Suwon's Sustainable Development goal system created for sustainable development policies was structured around three major sectors, 10 goals, and 57 detailed targets, with the environmental sector occupying significant proportion by comprising three goals.

The first of the environmental sector goals is clean energy for all through climate change response, which includes good energy production and conservation such as energy self-sufficiency and renewable energy, energy welfare, ecological transportation expansion, and air quality improvement.

The second goal is healthy and harmonious biodiversity, which aims to monitor habitats including eight flagship species, expand and manage landscape ecological conservation areas, expand natural area ratios, conduct biodiversity education, and ensure citizen participation and governance establishment.

The third goal is a clean and fresh water circulation city, which includes river ecosystem management, water quality improvement, citizen-participatory water management systems, expanded water self-sufficiency, and water conservation practices.

In particular, the 2016-2025 Suwon Environmental Conservation Plan has set an environmental vision of 'Eco-friendly Environmental Capital Suwon Where Citizens and Nature Are Happy' under the framework of creating an eco-friendly future city, establishing a pleasant living environment improvement system, and building advanced environmental administration with citizen participation.

A Suwon City official stated, "This is the time when the blueprint for Environmental Capital that Suwon has drawn over the past 10 years is now showing concrete effects," and added, "We will make our best efforts to solidify the status of an international environmental city befitting the Asia-Pacific Environment Ministers Forum to be held in September."