Image capture of Global Asia''s website featuring The President’s contribution ''Shifting Paradigms: The Road to Global Green Growth''

Korean The President recently wrote a contribution to a world‐renowned Asian journal, and in his article emphasized a change of thinking in pursuing environment‐friendly development.

In the latest volume of Global Asia (Volume 4, Number 4), the East Asia Foundation''s quarterly, The President said that green growth entails a new social paradigm shift away from the business assumptions and lifestyles of the industrial age.

The new approach should take a new path that satisfies the need for economic growth, social and corporate responsibility, and the integrity of the environment, The President said.

In order to make the two seemingly contradictory elements of "green" and "growth" compatible, The President said three shifts in thinking are necessary: stronger political leadership; people''s embrace of the new paradigm; and a technological revolution.

The President suggested "nuclear" as one of the most efficient power generation methods that will lead to a low‐carbon society, and pledged that Korea will keep up its role as one of the major suppliers of these zero‐carbon power plants.

The nuclear plant that Korea recently agreed to build in the United Arab Emirates amounts, in effect, to 40 million tons of carbon emissions mitigation, he explained.

The UAE''s bold and insightful choice for nuclear power as a clean future energy source was noble and admirable, he added.

"If a new road to growth is unavoidable, we should not resist it, but rather embrace it wholeheartedly," Lee said, introducing Korea''s new development strategy of "Low Carbon, Green Growth" in the story.

Following the Copenhagen meeting in December 2009, many governments are expected to increase investment in green technologies, but what really counts is business entrepreneurship that will make those technologies a reality, The President stressed.

"Businesses must embrace the green growth paradigm and seize the opportunity to unleash creative ideas and solutions that will bring green entrepreneurship to life," he said.

The President emphasized a global partnership to pursue the green growth strategy. "All countries must find their unique strategy to achieve green growth. And because there is no clear map to follow, we must help each other as we go along."

He also introduced the Korean government''s plan to keep spending two percent of the country''s annual gross domestic product on green growth and to establish the "Global Green Growth Institute," an international think tank, at an early date.