Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me first of all congratulate the opening of the East Asian Climate Forum and also offer all of you my warmest greetings and best wishes.

I would also like to wish the very best for the newly established Global Green Growth Institute, or GGGI, which is being officially launched today.

My special thanks go out to all of you who spent countless hours preparing for the launching of the GGGI.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Climate change is perhaps the gravest threat facing humankind. It is something that we, as human beings, never experienced before.

During the Copenhagen climate change summit last December, more than one hundred heads of state and government took part precisely because all of them recognize the gravity and seriousness of this issue.

The situation in Asia is especially worrisome. During the last thirty years, of all the natural disasters that occurred around the world, 40% of them happened in Asia; almost 90% of the victims as a result of such natural disasters were from Asia. It has been proven that in most of these cases, climate change was the reason in one way or another.

The temperature here in Korea during the last one hundred years has risen by twice the global average. Because of this, my government publicly announced during the G8 Extended Summit in Toyako Japan in 2008 that we will become an “early mover” when it comes to tackling climate change. I also pledged to establish an East Asian Climate Partnership.
This is why it gives me great pleasure to see so many countries, international organizations, NGO’s, scholars and experts taking part in this year’s second East Asia Climate Forum.

Distinguished guests,

Human kind is faced with both the “limits of growth” as well the “need for growth.” The need for growth is evident in the plain and painful reality in which there are still 1.2 billion of our fellow human beings living in extreme poverty with less than one dollar a day. Advanced countries also do not wish to see an end to growth.

This is why our collective and urgent task is to harmonize our environment’s sustainability with that of our need for continued growth. We must not become anthropocentric, nor must we turn to eco-fascism.

So, can environmental protection and sustained economic growth go hand in hand?

Our answer is a clear yes. When the Republic of Korea was celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its founding, I announced our new vision for the future. We call it the “Low Carbon Green Growth” vision. This is our answer.

Green Growth is a bold and innovative answer to the dilemma we are facing today. Green Growth will foster green industries, find the next engines of growth and create new and better jobs.

Green Growth is taking the “sustainable development” model and widening it so that it may become an action-oriented paradigm that can encompass both growth and the environment.

To translate this vision into reality, the Korean government has come up with the Five Year plan on Green Growth and the National Assembly has adopted the Basic Law on Green Growth in record time. When the global financial crisis struck, we did not clamp down but instead expanded our fiscal expenditures in the area of green industries. This was our Green New Deal and it led to tangible results.

Now, Korean companies are demonstrating their entrepreneurship and they started to invest in the future. Many of them are making bold investments into the next generation industries such as new and alternative sources of energy, LED, secondary batteries and green cars or eco vehicles.

Market-driven green growth is taking place as a result of these public and private efforts. Very soon, we will witness the Great Transformation to a Green Economy.

My government will continue to expand its R&D investments in its green industries. It will also modify and improve its tax system and financial regulations so that green entrepreneurship can flourish. We will do all that we can to help you become better green entrepreneurs so that you, in return, can create more and better jobs.

Distinguished guests,

Our new attempts are gaining more and more recognition from around the world.

The OECD Ministerial Meeting unanimously adopted Green Growth as a new way for future development. The United Nations also has plans to put in place a high-level panel on climate change. The World Bank also can become a good partner with Korea as they seek to assist developing countries in the field of green growth.

The World Economic Forum has chosen Green Growth as the core of its Global Redesign Initiative. China proposed a joint study on the future of the Green Economy while the United States and Korea are exploring ways to jointly develop green science technologies.

Distinguished guests,

Along with the vision for Green Growth, I also announced last year in Copenhagen our goal to establish the Global Green Growth Institute.

I am greatly pleased to announce today that I have kept my promise.

The GGGI is not just a vision. It’s our strategic base for taking real action.

The IPCC has done a remarkable job scientifically proving the causes and consequences of climate change; the GGGI will provide the policy and technical solutions to address the problem.

Based on close cooperation with our partners around the world, the GGGI will better organize the theoretical basis of green growth. It will provide actual and systematic solutions that will suit the specific needs of different socio economic needs of different countries.

For this, we will host the Global Green Growth conference in conjunction with the East Asia Climate Forum every year to share best practices and experiences; it will be a chance for us to share relevant technologies.

Moreover, we will strive to make the GGGI into an international body established by and adhering to an internationally accepted treaty by 2012. It is our hope to integrate the GGGI into the global network and to make it into a permanent and common asset that belongs to the international community.

With this in mind, the Korean government will actively support and provide financial assistance to the GGGI as it carries out its duties and mandates.

Again, I sincerely thank all those who helped us as we set about to launch the GGGI. In particular, I thank Lord Nicholas Stern and Professor Thomas Heller for their valuable insight and dedication. Also, to everyone at Climate Works I give you my special thanks.

Distinguished guests,

The world is becoming one in almost all areas. The future and the happiness of one country are inseparable from that of the world’s. Here in East Asia, we were taught that “all human beings are my brothers and sisters; all living things are one with me.”

Likewise, the Republic of Korea wishes to become a good neighbor to the world. We intend to be a responsible neighbor that takes part in solving common problems and face challenges together. We hope to work to bring about a planet-conscious civilization where people and nature seek harmony.

I hope that our dream of a green future will be realized.

When you dream alone, then your dream will just remain a dream. However, when we dream together, then our dream will come true.

Let us work together. Thank you.