The environment policy of South Korea is governmental actions regarding pollution or greenhouse gas issues, which South Korea has sought to reduce. The preservation of the environment is a constitutional right in South Korea. South Korea enacted their first environmental law in 1963, although there wasn't any funding allocated to it. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment enforces South Korea's environmental policy. As of 2024, South Korea is the world's 13th largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

History The Pollution Prevention Law was enacted in 1963. The law was mostly symbolic because there wasn't any agency to enforce it, nor any budget allocated by it. Then President Park Chung Hee expressed concerns about pollution problems caused by industry at his New Year’s Press Conference in 1977. In response to the pollution problem, he spearheaded the Environmental Preservation Law, which replaced the Pollution Prevention Law. The law also created the Bureau of Environmental Management to administer it. Enforcement of environmental law was fragmented among many different ministries at the time, and the government's environmental budget was only 0.077% of its total budget.

The environmental law was amended in 1979 to give the Environment Administration authority to enforce environmental laws. Chun Doo-hwan declared the preservation of the environment a constitutional right in 1981. In the same year, the Emission Charge System was enacted. The system imposed a tax based on the volume of emissions. The Solid Waste Management Bureau was also established alongside several local environmental offices in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Wonju in 1986. During the 1980s, several businesses opposed pollution regulations. Business associations, which represented many of these businesses against pollution regulation, like the Federation of Korean Industries and Korean Federation of Small Business, were some of the louder critics.

Several environmental laws were passed by South Korea in the 1990s. South Korea's concerns about sustainable development first developed after the Earth Summit of 1992. The Ministry of Environment released its plan to preserve the environment, which was called “Green Vision 21” in 1996.

South Korea's Green Korea plan, which was launched in 2008, focuses on renewable energy development, energy conservation, and energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan aims to decrease energy produced by fossil fuels to 61% and renewable energy being 11% of South Korea's energy.

The National Assembly passed the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth for Coping with Climate Change in 2021, which pledged large reductions in greenhouse gases by 2030 and full carbon neutrality by 2050. Enactment of the provisions within the law were slow. In the same year, South Korea pledged to cut its plastic use by 60% before 2030 and eliminate all plastic use by 2050.

In 2025, the South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the current law didn't protect citizen's rights. The court required that the National Assembly to amend the law to set carbon reduction targets for 2031 to 2049 by February 2026. The lawsuit was one of many over four years' time with 255 plaintiffs. The first lawsuit was filed by Youth 4 Climate Action, who filed in March 2020. In the same year, South Korea merged its Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.

Issues

In 2019, Korea emitted the 9th largest amount of greenhouse gases in the world, with 611 million metric tons of emissions. According to the Institute for Climate Change Action, even if South Korea meets its Nationally Determined Contribution goals, it will become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases among the 10 nations with the largest economies. As of 2024, South Korea is the 13th largest emitter in the world, emitting 654 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2022, which was 1.35% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

As of 2024, South Korea's steel industry is responsible for 16.7% of its emissions. South Korea's climate reduction goals do not meet what is needed to meet the Paris Climate agreement's goals, which would require a 59% reduction of emissions.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, a suspension of restrictions against single-use plastics in restaurants to stop second-hand contamination led to a 18.9% increase in plastic waste between 2019-2020.

Extreme weather events

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