The government said Thursday it will force chemical manufacturers to close down their business sites if they are responsible for accidents three times in a row within a certain time frame, in response to a series of recent chemical leaks.
In its 2013 policy plan reported to President Park Geun-hye, the Ministry of Environment said it will introduce the so-called “three-strike system,” which is expected to be adopted as early as the end of next year, and will forcibly revoke the business rights of such manufacturers.
Ministry officials said they will review related statistics before deciding the exact length of the period.
The ministry said it will also adopt a system to oblige polluters to fully compensate their victims by strictly applying a principle of mandating polluters be financially responsible for environmental disasters.
The manufactures that handle toxic materials must also get insurance policies that cover environmental damage beyond their compensation ability, they added.
The toughened regulation comes as the nation has seen a series of chemical-related accidents in recent months, including a fatal leakage from Samsung Electronics Co.’s chip plant in January that killed one worker.
The ministry also said it will entirely readjust a reduction target of greenhouses gases set by former President Lee Myung-bak, after judging that such a time frame would be unrealistic to achieve.
In 2009, the Lee administration committed to cut greenhouse house gas emissions by 30 percent from its business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2020.
Despite such a widely publicized plan, a ministry report released in February showed that the greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 increased by 9.8 percent from a year earlier.
The ministry will announce its new BAU level goal in August, officials said, but added that they do not plan to change the figure of the 30 percent reduction.
Park said that development projects should be carried out in a way that does not conflict with environmental interests after sufficiently collecting views from the public and thoroughly verifying their costs.
“I believe that values of the economy and the environment, and those of development and preservation should no longer be in conflict. We have to come up with measures to resolve these kinds of conflict,” Park said.
“Whether it be development or environment, the purpose is to improve the lives of the people.”
Park said she wants the two ministries to collaborate creatively as partners so as to change the paradigms of development and the environment. That is why the joint briefing was organized, she said.
She also called for the government to sufficiently collect views from experts and the public, and rigorously check necessary costs before pushing ahead with expensive development or environment preservation projects. (Yonhap News)
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