South Korea has put a price tag of up to one quadrillion won, about $747 billion, on its attempt to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. Senior officials presented the Korea Green Transformation (K-GX) strategy on October 7, according to OilPrice.com, which cites Reuters. The money is meant to cover renewable energy, electric vehicle uptake and industrial decarbonisation by 2035.

“We must move away from the practice of chasing others and become architects and leaders of the green market ourselves,” President Lee Jae Myung told a news conference.

What the plan targets

The headline targets are 100 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and electric and hydrogen vehicles making up more than 70 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2035. The plan also promises emissions cuts in steel, cement, semiconductors, petrochemicals and refining, though the report gives no percentages or deadlines for these. It also does not break the $747 billion down by sector or say where the money will come from.

Some of the missing detail sits in an earlier plan. In April, Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan presented an Energy Transition Promotion Plan to the Cabinet, as reported by Energy Monitor and the Asia Business Daily. It aims for renewables to supply at least 20 per cent of electricity by 2030, up from 11.4 per cent last year. It also proposes a roadmap to phase out the country’s 60 coal-fired plants by 2040, though 21 plants with life left after 2040 could be kept available for energy crises. Other measures include a 300,000-tonne hydrogen steelmaking demonstration plant by 2028, electric naphtha cracking in petrochemicals, green finance tools, and a gradual shift of fossil fuel subsidies for transport and heating towards renewables. Whether these measures sit inside the K-GX envelope is not spelled out in the OilPrice report.

Why now

The push follows the Middle East crisis, when cargoes were trapped in the Strait of Hormuz and South Korean refiners and utilities scrambled for alternative crude and LNG. South Korea is among Asia’s largest oil and gas importers, and without major growth in domestic renewables it remains exposed to geopolitical shocks.

Research from the climate think tank Ember and Global Energy Monitor puts numbers on that exposure. At early-June spot prices, South Korea’s fossil fuel imports across the whole energy sector would cost $133 billion in 2026, about six times its annual debt repayments, 3.5 times its food imports and almost three times its defence spending. Ember says existing wind and solar will save $4.7 billion in fossil import costs this year, and that reaching 100 GW could avoid a further $12 billion a year.

The delivery gap

Ember puts South Korea’s installed renewable capacity at 37 GW, so 100 GW means nearly tripling it in four years. The think tank says that if recent solar growth continues and the 14 GW of planned wind comes online, the country is on track for 92 GW. But it also flags weak spots: only 1.1 GW of utility-scale solar is currently tracked in Global Energy Monitor’s pipeline, South Korean wind and solar costs are significantly above global averages, and major grid projects are not due until the 2030s. A high-voltage DC “energy highway” has been designated a national priority.

“Getting the grid ready for 100GW is as important as building the gigawatts themselves,” said Yonghyun Song, CTO of NEXT group, in Ember’s report. Matt Ewen, an Ember energy analyst, put it more bluntly: “The goal is set. Now comes delivery.”