Climate change has led to extreme weather events in South Korea that affects: social, economy, industry, culture, and many other sectors. South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters. Such parameters include annual temperature, rainfall amounts, and precipitation.
The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons. The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly. The maximum precipitation during the summer has increased. The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change. To quickly adapt to climate change, the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation.
Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases, which are anthropogenic factors for climate change. In 2017 South Korea was the world's 7th largest emitter of carbon emissions and the 5th largest per capita.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Total greenhouse gas emissions in kt of CO2 equivalent are composed of CO2 totals excluding short-cycle biomass burning (such as forest fires, post-burn decay, peat fires and decay of drained peatlands), all anthropogenic CH4 sources, N2O sources and F-gases (HFCs, PFCs and SF6). The green house gas emissions of South Korea started drastically increased from the 1970s due to industrial and economical development. In 2016 was 694,479.99, and it is an increased amount 1.58% more than 2015. Also the gas emission amount was 708,429.99 and 715,500.00 in each 2017 and 2018 it increased each 1.98% and 1% more than last year. In 2019, the emission was 698,460.02, it declined 2.38% from 2018. (CO2 is caused by not only biomass burning such as agricultural waste burning and Savannah burning but also including other)
700 million tonnes of greenhouse gases was emitted in 2019. There was a 3.5% increase in emissions of greenhouse gases after a 6.5% drop in 2020. Korea is funding construction of overseas coal power.
South Korea is the ninth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Dangjin Power Station is estimated to have been the coal-fired power plant which emitted the third most carbon dioxide in 2018, at 34 million tons, and relative emissions are estimated at 1.5 kg per kWh.
By sector 20102011201220132014201520162017201820192020Total amount of emissions (million ton CO2 equivalent)656.1684.8688.0697.3692.1692.6693.7710.6727.0701.2656.2Energy565.7594.7596.0604.5596.9600.3602.2615.6632.6611.6569.9Industry process53.053.054.455.157.954.553.556.555.852.248.5Agriculture22.121.121.521.321.421.020.821.021.121.021.1waste15.416.016.116.415.816.917.217.617.416.516.7Amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to GDP (ton CO2 equivalent / billion)459.9462.9454.2446.2429.1417.7406.4403.6401.2378.5356.7Amount of greenhouse gas emissions per person13.213.713.713.813.613.613.513.814.113.512.7
Impacts on the natural environment
Temperature and weather changes
Precipitation increase
Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, has 228 years of precipitation records, starting with traditional cheugugi rain gauges which is the longest continual instrumental rainfall collection in the world. The record of daily precipitation provides a high-resolution dataset for detecting the singularity of extreme weather events and the multiple decades of precipitation variability. Precipitation was measured with cheugugi from 1778 to 1907, and modern observation equipment was developed and has been used since 1908. Comparing the cheugugi period and the modern period, the modern period shows a significant increase in mean rainfall rate. For example, statistical data for summer precipitation at cheugugi period is 861.8 mm whereas that for the modern period mean is 946.5 mm.Wang, B., J.G. Jhun., and B.K. Moon., 2006: Variability and Singularity of Seoul, South Korea, Rainy Season (1778–2004). Journal of Climate, 20, 2572–2580
As the amount of summer rainfall from 1912 to 2017 has increased by 11.6 mm/10 years, because the number of heavy rain and torrential rain events have increased in frequency, the risk of heavy rain has become much higher in the southern part of a peninsula than the central region of the Korea peninsula. A large amount of water vapour entering the southern part of the peninsula (Southern coast, Jeju Island) flows into the Yellow Sea in summer and creates a high frequency of torrential rains. On the other hand, the east coast shows a low torrential rain frequency. In addition, localized heavy rainfall during the summer months is also associated with the number of typhoons, and a clear trend of increasing frequency of typhoons affecting South Korea since the mid-1970s and mid-1990s can be observed, which leads to an increase in localized heavy rainfall. The frequency of localized heavy rainfall events with 1-hour peak precipitation of 50 millimeters or more has increased from an average of 2.4 events per year (1973~1982) to an average of 5.7 events per year(2013~2022).
However, despite the long-term trend of increasing overall summer precipitation, precipitation patterns since the mid-2010s have been different from the past. In recent years, a series of unusually low summer precipitation years have been observed. In 2015, annual precipitation was the third lowest on record, and in 2016 and 2017, August and June precipitation were the lowest and third lowest on record, respectively. In addition, the 2018 'Changma' period was the second shortest on record.
Changes in precipitation The tropical rain belt 'Changma front' is created in the Bay of Bengal and the western North Pacific as a sub-system of the East Asian Monsoon. The northward movement of the 'Changma front' is influenced by the development of the subtropical ridge. This northward moving quasi-stationary front is called 'Changma' in South Korea, which represents the main precipitation period.Seo, K.H, and L.J. Lee., 2011: A white book of Changma. KMA., 268p. print. http://www.climate.go.kr/home/bbs/view.php?bname=publicity&category1=&category2&code=25&skind=&sword=&vcode=4462 The 'Changma front' takes about 4 to 5 weeks to go through the Korea Peninsula. This slow movement results in a large, but steady, amount of summer rainfall over the entire Korea Peninsula in late June and July each year. However, in recent years, since the 2000s, 'Changma' precipitation has tended to start a little later and end a little later, with a secondary precipitation peak in early August after the 'Changma' period. In particular, since the 2010s, rainfall during the 'Changma' period has been decreasing, while localized heavy rainfalls of 30 millimeters or more per hour have been increasing. Furthermore, due to climate change, 'Changma' precipitation is predicted to increase in the future and become more intense. Specifically, 'Changma' precipitation has been predicted to increase by up to 5% in the near future (2020–2039) and up to 25% by the end of the 21st century (2080–2099).
Another, late summer 'Changma' precipitation event known as the 'Fall Changma' or 'Second Changma' has been recognised by authors since 2016. Since the 1970s, the duration and rainfall of the 'Fall Changma' has increased, possibly associated with climate warming. The 'Fall Changma' starts normally in late August to early September. It occurs when a 'Changma front' that has moved up toward China collides with Siberian high pressure and passes over the Korea Peninsula. The amount of rainfall and number of rainy days in the 'Fall Changma' period is generally lower than when the front moves north in early summer. Rainfall is also very erratic from year to year. However, on occasion, torrential downpours and tropical cyclones (typhoons) can occur, damaging crops as they reach maturity.
Temperature increases
Since 1999, the Korea Global Atmosphere Watch Center located at Anmyeon-do has been monitoring major greenhouse gasses (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO), methane (), nitrous oxide (NO), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11 and CFC-12). The Anyone-do station is located in a relatively pollution-free environment, an ideal site for observing the background atmosphere of Northeast Asia, including the Korean Peninsula.
Among these GHG, CO acts most to change many aspects of the climate factors.Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 2012: Summary of Korea Global Atmosphere Watch 2011 Report. KMA, 10pp. The CO concentrations at Anmyeon-do are substantially higher than the global average; the average CO2 concentration for 2018 was recorded as 415.2 ppm. It is an increase of 44 ppm (6.7%) relative to the annual average of 371.2 ppm for 1999 when carbon dioxide concentrations were first observed in the Anmyeon-do. And it is 7.4 ppm higher than the global average of 407.8 ppm for the same year as documented by WMO. The annual growth rate of CO2 for the 10 years(2008~2018) was 2.4 ppm/year, which was higher than the global average of 2.2 ppm/year.
Methane, another prominent greenhouse gas in the Korean Peninsula's atmosphere, also shows a clear increase in atmospheric concentration over the decade from 2008 to 2018. The 2018 annual average concentration of methane observed in the Anmyeon-do was 1974 ppb, which is 115 ppb higher than the global average and 100 ppb higher than the Northern Hemisphere Mauna Loa average of 1874 ppb. The 2018 methane concentration in the Anmyeon-do is 113 ppb higher than in 1999, when observations first began.
During the industrialization era (second industrial revolution) over the past few decades, people have been burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gasoline, natural gas). This releases CO into the atmosphere which contributes the greenhouse effect. A sharp temperature contrast is shown between the urban and rural areas due to this industrialization. The mean temperatures data variations observed at ten meteorological stations in South Korea show an annual mean temperature increase at a rate of 0.52 °C per decade. During the last 29 years, the increase in the annual mean temperature was 1.5 °C for the Seoul station (found in an urban area) and 0.6 °C for the rural and seashore stations. These rate differences are significantly larger over urbanized areas.