Sejong, November 1 - After calculating the environmental protection expenditure account as of 2020, the Ministry of Environment estimated the national environmental protection expenditure at KRW 46,229.6 billion. South Korea devoted 2.39% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to environmental protection. The environmental protection expenditure account is a nationally approved statistical framework that measures how much all economic players, such as the government and corporations, spend for protecting the natural environment. The account covers the spending on environmental protection services, such as air, waste, and wastewater management. The Bank of Korea managed the account until 2009, and then the responsibility was transferred to the Ministry of Environment. The ministry submits the key results to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The national environmental protection expenditure in 2020 was KRW 46,229.6 billion, a 4.6% increase year-on-year (KRW 44,189.7 billion), and businesses, the government, and households spent 53.8% (KRW 24,851.5 billion), 37.7% (KRW 17,417.5 billion), and 8.5% (KRW 3,911.1 billion) of total expenditure, respectively. By sector, the largest share of expenditures was attributed to wastewater, which accounted for 38.8% of total expenditures, followed by air (22.6%) and waste (20.8%), accounting for more than 80% of total expenditures. Expenditures on wastewater were mainly from the government, and detailed expenditures include establishing a water pollution monitoring system, maintaining sewage pipelines, and improving old sewage pipelines. In the air sector, most expenditures were for fine particle reduction projects (government) and investment and management costs for air pollution control facilities (private). Expenditures on waste were mostly for waste collection and treatment (government) and waste treatment consignment (private).

As for the air sector, the private sector has been continually investing in air pollution control facilities, and the public sector has increased its investments in fine particle reduction projects. As a result, expenditures in the sector recorded an increase of 12% in 2019 and 18.2% in 2020. As of 2020, 22.6% of spending in the air sector surpassed the waste sector for the first time since statistics were compiled, taking second place in terms of spending.

The national environmental protection expenditure peaked at 2.71% in 2009, declined to 2.1% in 2017, then began to increase in 2018, reaching 2.39% in 2020.

Jang Gi-bok, Director-General of the Green Transition Policy Bureau, said, "We plan to continuously increase the utilization of environmental protection expenditure data to include costs needed to achieve carbon neutrality in the environmental protection expenditure account." He added, "The ministry will analyze the national environmental protection expenditure more thoroughly and extend the scope of analysis to expenditures related to carbon neutrality such as renewable energy."

Contact: Yoo Jung Hyun, Deputy Director

Green Transition Policy Division / +82-(0)44-201-6689

Foreign Media Contact: Chun Minjo(Rachel)

+82-(0)44-201-6055 / rachelmchun@korea.kr