Gwangju City News

Reprinted from the Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall website.

Starting in 2021, Gwangju City will be promoting the Gwangju General Plan for the AI-Green New Deal to realize a “carbon-neutral energy-independent city in 2045.” In August 2020, the Gwangju community declared a “climate crisis emergency,” and the Gwangju General Plan for the AI-Green New Deal was announced.

From the policy establishment to the implementation stage, public-private governance was formed in which the administration, government, industry, civil society organizations, and experts participated, while the “CarbonNeutral Cities Promotion Committee” is to be launched in early February, and operations will begin in earnest. For 2021, the AI-Green New Deal will invest separate private capital of 347.7 billion won for 62 projects under three strategies of “creating a green transition city, climate-safe city, and green industrial city.”

As a first step, it will establish a mid- to long-term road map for realizing carbon-neutral energy independence by 2045, set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by stage and field, and check the implementation status annually. At the same time, the climate crisis response preliminary review system and performance management common indicators will be in effect to ensure execution.

In the field of green energy conversion, 800 million won (of which 400 million won will be private capital) will be invested in the Citizens Solar Power Plant Installation Project, which will create funds from installing solar power facilities. Two-hundred million won will be invested to create an energy conversion village-hub center to support energy-conversion education and civic-led activities.

The high-tech industrial complex, which was designated as the Green Energy ESS Power Regulatory Free Zone in November last year, will invest 19.5 billion won from this year to promote private-oriented power demonstration projects. In the construction sector, 16 billion won will be invested in green remodeling projects of 3,500 households and 47 facilities, such as national daycare centers, health centers, and public medical centers, to improve energy use and the living environment. In the transportation sector, 44 billion won will be invested, starting with the first six hydrogen city buses introduced in December 2020, and gradually expanded in 2021. Also to be

In order to establish a stable hydrogen supply base, 16 billion won will be invested to install additional charging stations in addition to the Byeokjin-dong hydrogen charging station and establish a hydrogen production base by 2022.

In the area of green spaces and ecology, there will be investments in 14 locations, including parks and the Yeongsan River Grand Park. The Jangnok Wetland, the first national wetland within a city in Korea, provides a window for communication with environmental groups and residents to prepare ways to use valuable natural assets wisely.

In the field of resource recycling, a model is being developed for the separation of transparent PET bottles in apartment complexes, which was begun in December last year, to areas outside of the apartment buildings. In addition, the recycling rate will be increased by expanding collection centers for each region so they will be able to handle disposable products whose emissions have increased due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation.

In the industrial sector, 16.6 billion won will be invested for the clean air industry cluster, which provides demonstration facilities and development of fine dust reduction, by the second half of the year. A total of 8.4 billion won will be invested in building and equipping of the Eco-friendly Air Industry Demonstration Complex, which will support the development of core technologies to improve air quality of multi-use facilities.

“This year, 2021, is the first year of the Gwangju General Plan for the AI-Green New Deal in which Gwangju is transforming itself from a high-carbon energy-dependent city to a citizenled, energy-independent, carbon-neutral eco-friendly green city,” said Park Nam-ju, director of the Environmental Ecology Bureau.

In preparation for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday (Seollal), Gwangju City is conducting special inspections of delivery restaurants through February 10. As the non-face-toface culture has spread due to the social-distancing regulations imposed by the pandemic, the demand for delivered food has increased significantly, and as the Lunar New Year holidays are getting closer, City Hall is conducting inspections for the restaurants registered on food delivery apps so as to provide safe food to the Gwangju public.

The main items to be checked are (a) whether the delivery app registration information matches the contents of the business report (b) whether the country of origin of the restaurant ingredients is appropriately indicated, and (c) whether the product is used and stored in accordance with the expiration date. Businesses that violate the laws will be promptly dealt with, and after reviewing related laws and regulations, strict measures will be taken. “As the demand for food delivery has increased due to COVID-19, we will do our best to ensure food safety for our citizens and establish a fair trade order through proper labeling of place of origin,” said Kim Hyun-si, head of the Special Judicial Police for Public Safety.

Gwangju City announced that it has achieved a “high” result in the regional gender equality index for 2019, conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. According to the report released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in January, there were four cities and provinces that received high ratings: Gwangju, Daejeon, Busan, and Jeju, where Gwangju was the only local government that has risen two levels, from the middle to the top.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family wants to identify the level of gender equality at national and regional levels in order to establish policy directions from the perspective of gender equality and to examine tasks by fields. Since 2010, the degree of gender equality in the country and region has been surveyed annually and announced in four stages.

The Gender Equality Index consists of gender-equal participation in society with respect to (a) women’s human rights and welfare and (b) gender equality awareness and culture in eight areas: economic activities, decision-making, education and training, welfare, health, safety, family, culture and information.

Gwangju City has conducted full inspections on the May 18 historical sites by the end of January, ahead of the 41st anniversary of the May 18 Democratization Movement. The inspections of all twenty-nine May 18 historical sites and facilities include the inspection of signs and stone monuments across the city and cross-checking with local governments to investigate whether the facilities are damaged or not, in addition to carrying out environmental maintenance in preparation for the upcoming anniversary.

Once the inspections are completed, the government will establish a maintenance plan in accordance with the results and complete any necessary repairs and maintenance of the facilities before May 2021. Large-scale historical sites, such as the old site of the 505 Security Forces, the former Armed Forces Gwangju Hospital, and the former Gwangju Red Cross Hospital, will be patrolled and additional security equipment will be installed.