International Conference in Commemoration
of the 25th Anniversary
of Korea Energy Economic Institute (KEEI)

September 6, 2011
Diamond Ballroom (3F)
Renaissance Seoul Hotel
Luncheon Remarks

Thank you for the kind introduction.

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel more or less on a regular basis to Mongolia in my role as Honorary Consul.  And, in fact, just last week I visited there as the Chairman of the Korea-Mongolia Economic Cooperation Committee which accompanied Korea’s president Lee Myung-bak on his trip to the region.
Whenever I go back to Mongolia, I am reminded of the title of the movie directed by Robert Zemeckis: “Back to the Future.”  That’s because, like the title of the movie, the issues Mongolia faces now are the ones that we—every inhabitant on this planet—will face in the future.  So, whenever I go back to Mongolia, I feel like I’m going “Back to the Future.”

While there are many positive things happening in Mongolia, the country still struggles with what is sometimes dubbed “FEW Poverty”—“FEW” being the acronym of food, energy, and water. For this reason, despite its vast land area, the country can support only a minimal population and lags in industrialization.

In fact our entire planet increasingly will face the same challenges:  food, energy, and water poverty: that is, “FEW poverty” which is being aggravated by population increase, rapid industrialization of emerging economies, and climate change.  This is exactly what has been happening in a microcosm in Mongolia today.

I’ve come to believe that if anyone can solve Mongolia’s FEW Poverty problems, then he or she can solve the world’s most serious security problems for the future.

As an example of an endeavor to rise to the challenges of what can be done, I would like to cite a Korean-Mongolian public-private partnership project which began in 2009 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  This initiative, the Green Eco-energy Park project or “GEEP” in short, was designated as a flagship project by the World Energy Council for the Asia-Pacific region and offers one solution to the global FEW Poverty challenge.  The concept is to generate power using a Daesung Group-developed hybrid solar and wind power system we call “SolaWin.”  With the energy generated by SolaWin, groundwater is then pumped to be used for drinking and irrigation so that not only can appropriate local crops be grown, but also desertification combated in vulnerable regions.  The Korean half of the partnership as represented by Daesung Group provided funding and technology while the Mongolian side offered a 40-year lease of the land at no charge. 

The success of GEEP has inspired a number of similar projects.  Last year the SolaWin system was installed in Mandakh Soum, a village 550 kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar which serves 150 households or approximately 600 people providing them with electricity and drinking water.  Now the villagers are able to grow vegetables, also with the water produced by the pump. 

In addition SolaWin was selected by the Korea International Cooperation Agency or KOICA for installation in other areas around the world with significant off-grid energy and water needs.  SolaWin will be providing electricity, and drinking water as well as water for agricultural use in countries KOICA serves such as Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia.  After a recent trip to Africa by Korea’s president, the introduction of SolaWin on a much larger scale in the Congo and other countries in the region is in the process of being launched.

Personally, what I most like about this project is that instead of energy being the troublemaker, in this case it is the troubleshooter.

As you all will recall, just two or three years ago the threat of climate change and the urgent need to find a solution were the main topics of global discussion.

For the past few years OECD countries were passionately advocating Green New Deals and Green Growth policies in response to climate change as well as the global economic crisis.  This passion has definitely cooled. 

One of the reasons is the unrelenting discussion on the cause of climate change.  That is, whether it is a manmade artificial disaster that can be averted or it is simply a universal natural calamity or that is cyclical phenomenon.  History shows global cooling and warming alternating.

Another reason for global cooling of these agenda is we are now facing a different sort of challenge in international economics.  We are suffering from the aftereffects of the policies adopted to overcome recent series of economic crises.  Of these policies, those that created excessive liquidity as a result of government stimulus packages have left many economies vulnerable with little resources left to meet global challenges such as climate change.

As we all well know, governments’ inability to resort to macroeconomic or fiscal measures is not good news for the green energy industry.  Green energy costs are simply still not competitive with those of fossil fuels.  Supplying energy from green sources necessitates a vital dependence on receiving ample financial support from the government side. 

However we cannot help but accept the truth that green energy and green growth are the only solutions left to our disposal to meet the challenge of our most pressing security issues as embodied in FEW Poverty or in climate mitigation.

Many experts from both the public and private sides have come to this conference.  Thus, I look forward to hearing much more from you on these issues later on today, especially on how we can tide over this turbulent time of global economic crisis with our very precious cargo of this planet earth.

Or perhaps, we might have to just give in and submit and adjust to the changing climate and redesign the global economic order accordingly.  One of my experiences is that because of this very climate change now Mongolia has much more rain and the desert of Mongolia is blooming. And our GEEP project site is now covered with grass. Recently, I’ve found that a very precious herb is growing all over which is known good for diabetes. So climate change might not be entirely evil.

Thank you very much.