보고서

https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities/world-air-quality-report-2019-en.pdf

보고서 13페이지 한국 부문 발췌

PROGRESS

South Korea has a dense air quality monitoring network, highlighting a strong commitment to tracking and improving air quality. From 2018 to 2019, the national monitoring network grew its urban pollution monitoring, including more PM2.5 monitoring. Much of Korea’s particulate pollution is seasonal, with many cities experiencing nearly double the amount of PM2.5 during winter months than in summer months, as indicated by 2019’s data. Following a pollution peak in March 2019, the government legislated to categorize the nation’s air pollution a “social disaster”. This enabled access to emergency funds, and a range of measures to tackle seasonal emissions were introduced, effective from December to March (Chung, 2019). These include closing up to a quarter of its coal-fired power plants, capping operations at other coal-fired power plants at 80%, and restrictions on emission grade 5 vehicles in metropolitan areas (Regan, 2019). Since these new rules were introduced towards the end of the 2019 winter pollution peak, their impacts on pollution levels remain to be seen in 2020.

CHALLENGES

Not a single city in South Korea met the WHO’s annual PM2.5 guideline of 10μg/m3 in 2019. South Korea had the highest average PM2.5 level during 2019 of any OECD country. Air pollution remains a problem shared by both urban and rural areas, with South Korea’s most polluted and cleanest locations only varying by 15 μg/m3 in annual PM2.5 concentration. While trans-boundary air pollution can contribute additional PM2.5 from neighboring countries, it is estimated that approximately half the country’s PM2.5 is generated domestically [1]. The South Korean government’s policies for air pollution are mostly focused on temporary measures and emission reduction policies. This may be the reason that air quality improvements in South Korea have stagnated for the past several years. 

HIGHLIGHT: 2019 LEGISLATURE

South Korea ranks highest among OECD countries for average annual PM2.5 exposure. On a city level, 61 of the top 100 most polluted cities in OECD countries are located in South Korea. This is a considerable increase from 44 ranked cities in 2018. Coal plants contribute to more than 40% of Korea’s energy mix (Regan, 2019). Whilst these emissions are now being limited during the winter months of December to March under new governmental measures, a shift away from fossil fuel usage in industry, power generation and transportation is needed to more effectively tackle particulate pollution in the long-term.