［ESG Taiwan STAGE EP04］ Korea’s policies for carbon neutrality and Carbon Reduction Index（CRI）

Q1. Mr. Jhun, Could you introduce to us the goals of the SDX Foundation in Korea and in the world?

Mr. Jhun:
Thank you, Mr. Chen. I am very happy to be here. This SDX Foundation was originally launched as the K Valley Foundation in 2015, has been trying to find new solutions through research on how our human lives will change after the Fourth Industrial Revolution and what residential environments or jobs will be optimized for those changes.Meanwhile, the foundation was renamed the SDX Foundation in March last year, 2021, to pursue sustainable development (SD) while spreading individual love and empathy based on the digital transformation (DX) platform.

In the near future society, we cannot win the competition with machines such as artificial intelligence with our physical or intellectual abilities so far. AI can already compose and draw. They can be creative either.

However, human beings are greater. We can love and empathize to benefit Mother Nature and others. I think human beings are the only creatures that can dream of a better world and exert a huge imagination to make it come true.

Unfortunately, so far, that wonderful imagination has been mainly used to satisfy greed and has made the global community sick, but in the future, we will have to create a better future where everyone co-exists with the numerous machines we have created.

To solve this situation, deep and profound wisdom is needed. The reality of the global community, where one side of the Earth is starving to death and the other side is suffering from overflowing food waste, shows the urgency of human civilization. We cannot promise the future with the level of wisdom that growls to destroy each other without understanding that we are a living community aboard the only ship called the Earth.

Our only home, the Earth, is severely damaged by these low-level civilizations and is pushing for a path of annihilation. It resembles a human being who cannot grow mentally even after becoming an adult and overworks only the body with an immature mind. It’s time for the global community to mature mentally. Now, the Earth is subject to management and restoration. We must dramatically raise the level of human civilization and restore a living community called Earth to make it sustainable. And you have to be a leader who loves all the creatures in the global community and creates a better future in harmony.

Perhaps groundbreaking reforms will be needed, and in this process, various digital transformation technologies such as blockchain and metaverse will play a critical role as an infrastructure in raising the level of human wisdom. I think it is a challenge for human beings to dramatically boost human civilization through thousands of times more intellectual exchange in the cyber world than now. The SDX Foundation is trying to promote consumer-centered carbon reduction activities that expand individual participation, not supplier-centered carbon reduction, in responding to the climate crisis, which is considered the most important challenge for human beings. As the Korean proverb says, ‘Gather dust, Becomes a mountain’, we are trying to implement a meaningful carbon reduction by building a digital platform called ‘Green Platform’ and encouraging small actions of individuals through it. For example, rather than waiting for the 1.5 billion automobiles that travel around the world to become electric vehicles, it is more meaningful to make these vehicles emit less carbon. When demand decreases, supply naturally decreases.

It is important to recognize that sustainable development is not a problem for governments or the international community, but for ourselves and our children. This requires a foundation for digital transformation and to implement it, we are creating it through talent donations and sponsorship from many experts and sponsors. We would like to share this platform and business model with the world in the future. In particular, we plan to give priority to countries with weak digital infrastructure so that more people can participate. This is because responding to the climate crisis is a task that all global citizens should participate in. Thank you!

Q2. Can you introduce what is the Carbon Reduction Index (CRI)? How does it relate to Korea’s policies for carbon neutrality? And what is your job related to the whole society and the Korean policy?

Mr. Jhun:
I think the government is mainly trying to achieve carbon neutrality by controlling power plants and factories that emit a lot of carbon. However, I think the center of carbon reduction activities should also start with changes in individuals’ perceptions and behaviors. That’s why we’re trying to promote consumer-centered carbon reduction activities that government policies can’t reach. CRI is an indicator of this consumer-centered carbon reduction activity. Therefore, I believe it can serve as a complement to the government’s carbon-neutral policy.The SDX Foundation, which pursues digital-based sustainable development, established the Carbon Reduction Committee (CRC) and ‘measures individual carbon reduction performance and provides appropriate compensation for all global citizens to participate in the climate crisis response. We would like to contribute to the creation of a sustainable global village. To do this effectively, we must build the Green Platform, a platform that accurately records, evaluate, and rewards individuals’ actions.

Individuals’ carbon reduction can be very minimal. However, it is very important to collect them and achieve a significant level of carbon reduction.

For these efforts, solid support from local governments and companies is essential. Therefore, it is necessary to check the status of individual activities and the support status of local governments and companies. So, we plan to evaluate not only the members but also the policies, processes, and programs of the target organizations that support members through the Carbon Reduction Index (CRI) to evaluate the voluntary carbon reduction activities of the target organizations and suggest directions to them. Although various indicators are related to carbon reduction, CRI is an indicator especially for carbon reduction activities of individuals.

As I said earlier, I think the voluntary participation of consumers is the most important thing for carbon reduction, so evaluating their activity is a priority, and CRI is an indicator of the efforts of local governments or companies that support them.

Here are the expected effects of CRI evaluation:

First, expand the participation of members to promote consumer-centered carbon reduction activities. The core of carbon reduction activities is the active participation of individuals. To do this, it is necessary to encourage their participation and activities so that systematic and effective carbon reduction activities can be carried out. For example, the code of conduct for transportation or energy with great carbon reduction effects should be treated very importantly, and recycling should also be presented after reviewing the entire process of implementing practical effects. These can be done systematically and effectively through CRI evaluation. Additionally, individual activities recorded on the green platform will be the basis for providing incentives to them, and the more benefits they are given, the more greeners will be able to participate in the virtuous cycle.

Second, it provides guidelines for more effective execution of the organization’s budget or policy. In order for companies or local governments that need to manage ESG to use their budgets effectively, they must implement consumer-centered policies. No matter how good the policy is, it’s no use if the members don’t accept it.