During the royal visit, the sustainability track will primarily focus on topics and themes within green transition; wind energy technology and energy efficiency - but also present discussions on sustainable urbanization and smart cities.
Last year the Korean government confirmed two new smart city demonstration sites, to be located in the administrative hub city of Sejong and a second in Busan, a port city and the 2nd largest city of Korea. Together with specific plans for the construction of smart cities and an interest in Denmark's Wind Power Know-how, the green transition in South Korea makes the country a very interesting market for Danish sustainable energy solutions now and in the coming years.
There is a substantial potential for Denmark in cooperation with South Korea, which is a relatively new market and the Danish experts and know-hows can benefit the South Koreans in their ambitious green transition.
Site visits and seminars will include networking opportunities with offical, public utilities and private developers, who are planning to make massive investments in the coming years to ensure a greener South Korea.
Driven by increasing concerns among the South Korean population of growing pollution levels and reliance on coal and nuclear power, South Korea has set a clear course for the country's green transition as President Moon announced that the country aims at increasing its share of renewable energy to 20 percent by 2030.
Of the total supply of renewable energy, waste energy contributed the largest proportion with 68%, followed by hydropower and other types of energy. The major portion such as waste energy and hydro is expected to decrease and will be replaced by development of other energy sources. Technologies related to improving energy efficiency in a broad field of areas are seen as an emerging market in Korea and further opportunities will be available in the form of technology and business collaboration within these areas in the future.
Denmark and South Korea are not new partners within this field. Since 2012, the nations have collaborated in The Green Growth Alliance where the 8th meeting was held in Seoul in November last year. The aim with the alliance is to establish a cooperative relationship in the fields of climate change adaptation, mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions, technology transfer and development.
This led to a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a more detailed collaboration within Renewable Energy, whereby Denmark is exchanging energy policies with Korea to secure and optimize the Development process of new Wind Energy farms.