Domestic and international climate and environment experts including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for informing the world of the dangers of climate change, all spoke in one voice calling for South Korea to be more aggressive in its response to climate change, including efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

On June 23, the 2021 Kyunghyang Forum was held on the theme, “Living with the Climate Crisis: The Path to Survival” at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. In his keynote address, Gore mentioned the need for rich countries to aid developing nations and to help phase out carbon emissions in exchange for their use of fossil fuels. He also said that world leaders were heading in the right direction and that South Korea was also displaying very important leadership. The former vice president claimed that many countries in the world were looking at South Korea as a model and emphasized that many countries including South Korea should exhibit leadership in phasing out carbon emissions.

According to Gore, the world is at a very critical time when a new age is opening with the development of renewable energy technology, but the current rate at which the world is responding to climate change is too slow and requires drastic changes. Society had long regarded the response to the climate as a task for the government and neglected the issue, but all that is changing. The chairman of the Climate Reality Project said that many people were aware of the problem and that consumers also wanted change. He then warned that if the government and the private sector both operated in existing ways, they would be making a critical mistake. Gore continued to emphasize the fact that we already had the means to resolve the crisis and called for many passionate leaders in the public and private sectors to be inspired and change the future so that future historians could state this moment as the biggest turning point in human civilization.

World-renowned social theorist Jeremy Rifkin highly evaluated South Korea as a country with strengths in the Internet, renewable energy and platforms and demanded South Korea to initiate action. Rifkin mentioned how South Korea had achieved miraculous growth after the Korean War, transforming into one of the world’s top 10 economic powerhouses. He claimed that South Korea was a champion leading the smart revolution (third industrial revolution) and argued that if South Korea took the lead, it would become a model for the world.

Rifkin said there was still hope in responding to the climate crisis with a successful third industrial revolution. According to Rifkin, the world only has a razor blade-thin amount of time left, but there is still hope. At the time of the first industrial revolution, the economy teetered because of a pandemic like the current age, but the world managed to establish a continental telegraph network and railway.

Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), opened the forum this day with the first keynote address. He called for the South Korean government to be more aggressive in reducing greenhouse gases and achieving carbon neutrality. The former UN secretary-general mentioned the fact that South Korea ranked seventh in the world when it came to carbon emissions and said, “In a negative sense, our country is already a member of the G7. It would be nice to be excluded from this kind of G7.” He also said, “If South Korea fails to faithfully implement its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050, we cannot say that the future is bright. The government should put top priority on resolving the climate crisis in all its policies.”

Participants from the government and National Assembly expressed strong determination to resolve the climate crisis in their congratulatory messages. This day, President Moon Jae-in sent a congratulatory message and said, “Becoming carbon neutral is a difficult goal, but it is a path that we must walk. It is an opportunity for innovative technology and industries and for the creation of more jobs.” In his congratulatory remark, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said, “When it comes to the climate crisis, our companies know the most and are best in responding to the problem,” and stressed his determination to provide policies necessary to become carbon neutral.

Park Byeong-seug, speaker of the National Assembly said, “The National Assembly will also work to provide stable measures in parliament with ten to twenty years in the future in mind. We must now implement the Resolution for an Emergency Response to the Climate Crisis, which the ruling and opposition lawmakers agreed to and adopted.” Due to COVID-19 distancing measures, the forum was held this day with a minimum number of attendants on site. Over 600 people participated in the forum with over 500 online participants (up to 320 people logged on at one point).