By: Ji Hyun Um, KGGTF 2025 Youth Intern
For the final session of the KGGTF 2nd Youth Internship Kickoff Orientation, Dr. Jiyon Shin, a Consultant and Coordinator of this program, delivered a lecture titled "Green Growth: What, Why & Its Trends." Shin engaged the audience from the start by asking relatable questions like how we came to the event, how much waste we created, and how much energy we use today. By showing the multiplier effect on one's day-to-day life and the impact of consumption, she took a deep dive into the discussion on sustainability. As remarked at the 1987 United Nations Bruntland Commission, sustainable development is a development to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Stressing the equivalent weight of the needs of both generations, Shin shed light on the distinct characteristics of the concepts that might be confusing: sustainable development and green growth. Green growth, as a mixed idea of economic theory and policy-making on paths of economic growth that are environmentally sustainable, is a strategy based on innovation with a focus on "growth," she highlighted. Shin illustrated how two polar-opposite notions on the surface – environmental sustainability and economic growth – can co-exist. Demonstrating the international effort on green growth by minimizing the environmental degradation of developing countries and innovating technologies to move up the turning point, she drove home the point that the interns will contribute to the promotion of green growth as a central mission of the KGGTF.
Shin seamlessly transitioned the discussion to examining what global challenges we are facing today. The constant expansion in world population and rapid urbanization was pointed out first as a primary issue causing a great burden on numerous sectors including water, energy, and food management. Climate change even accelerates the gravity of global problems, manifesting in all sectors such as poverty, energy, water, and digital. To ensure the audience could grasp the abstract implications of the economic inequality induced by climate change, Shin provided straightforward figures that showed the U.S. needs 5.1 earths if everyone on earth lived like U.S. citizens, whereas Tanzania needs merely 0.7 earths. She then continued the discussion by accentuating another international issue: the global waste problem, energy crisis, and food & agriculture. With the focus on uneven distribution of influence and the ability to risk management, the lecture laid the groundwork for understanding the necessity of international cooperation and emphasized the critical role of tangible action in addressing these interconnected challenges effectively.
Before discussing the sustainable solutions that operate in real life, the lecture drew attention to the three pillars of sustainable development. Economic growth is no longer a universal problem-solver as asserted in the past, she underscored. Rather, there is a common agreement on sustainability that it should include three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. Even though the diagrams that describe the concept of sustainability could differ - intersecting circles, literal pillars implying equal weight, and concentric circles that the economy is at the core - any policy, project, or product has to assess the impact in all three aspects. Shin then took a closer look at each pillar, providing a deeper understanding of how each pillar is assessed with different indices. Shin further segmented the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) into 3 pillars, enabling an intuitive insight into each goal.
Steering the discussion towards the global movement, Shin took note of the change initiated by the 2015 Paris Agreement. Encouraging more inclusive efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) targeting not only in developed countries but also developing countries, every country began to introduce Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Catching up with these world trends, Shin presented Korea's ambitious goals and further investment in green growth initiatives. For a direct awareness of the magnitude of the problem, she brought the data that Korea is the world's 7th largest energy consumer, still heavily dependent on coal-based energy. As a countermeasure, the Korean government declared the 2021 Green New Deal, a promising framework to achieve net zero by 2050, and passed acts and regulations on climate change, leading to providing a foothold to green growth. According to this national action plan, the annual budget for R&D on climate technology has also been expanded by 2.74 trillion KRW, showing a 3.9 percent increase compared to last year.
Last but not least, the discussion accentuated how important the WBG and WBG KGGTF has been in opening ways for the world toward sustainable development, drawing on Korea's green growth experience and new technologies. By supporting the operationalization of inclusive green growth initiatives, strategies, and investment, the KGGTF has awarded 237 grants and delivered a total of $130 million in funding, establishing its efficiency with an impressive $202 leveraged for every $1 grant awarded. Its other main activities, besides finance support, are knowledge exchange, capacity building, operating advisory services, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Through specific examples from the project "Mangroves for Coastal Resilience Project," Shin even shared a detailed account of how World Bank’s operations navigate significant change and promote green growth inclusively.