Global experts will discuss the role of green buildings in reducing carbon emissions at a three-day conference that kicks off in Seoul on Thursday, officials said Sunday.

Hosted by the Korea Green Building Council, the conference brings representatives from the Asia-Pacific region together to seek ways to promote the use of environmentally friendly buildings after a landmark agreement reached in Paris late last year.

Global leaders urged the building sector to devise ways to cut down carbon emissions on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.


As parts of efforts to reach the goal, participants of the upcoming conference are expected to discuss various roles of the building sector, which takes up one-third of global carbon emissions. They will also talk about how to adopt zero-energy building systems and reduce the use of fossil energy, organizers said.

“The conference will be a venue for governments, businesses and academics in the Asia-Pacific regions to find more practical ways for the building sector to reduce carbon emissions,” Kim Eun-sun, a spokesperson at the Korea Green Building Council, told The Korea Herald. KGBC is the Korean arm of the WGBC.

European Union Ambassador to Korea Gerhard Sabathil is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech titled “The role of green buildings in EU climate change policy.” He will share the EU’s strategies and performances in response to climate change, they added.

Korean experts, in particular, will present ideas to curb greenhouse gases emitted from existing buildings in Seoul, which accounts for two-thirds of carbon emissions of the capital city, they added. At the Paris Climate Conference, the Korean government vowed to cut emissions by 37 percent from the expected business-as-usual level by 2030.

The WGBC’s vice chairman Tai Lee Siang will also speak about the current trends in green building sector in the Asia-Pacific region and will propose some ideas applicable to the Korea industry.

Yaki Wo, a specialist from nonprofit organization Architecture 2030, who has stressed the need to reduce carbon emissions in the building sector since the early 2000s, will share some issues about green building certifications.

By Shin Ji-hye
(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)