South Korea says climate court ruling won't hurt business

A landmark court verdict that found South Korea's climate goals were "unconstitutional" would not affect major businesses and it would be easy to revise targets that were ruled to be insufficient, a government minister said.

The Constitutional Court's ruling last week forced the government to improve its environmental plan from 2031 onwards in an important victory for young climate activists who brought the case.

Seoul's climate goals were "ruled unconstitutional not because we have a low target," Choe Nam-ho, vice minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, told AFP on Wednesday (Sep 4).

"The constitutional petition was made in the sense that it would be better to present a clearer goal," he said.

"We already have plans set till 2030, and our final goal for 2050, so all we have to do is have a discussion on what to do between then," Choe told AFP at the World Climate Industry Expo in the southern port city of Busan.

South Korea made a legally binding commitment in 2021 to reduce carbon emissions by 290 million tonnes by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Choe said any revision of targets was unlikely to affect South Korea's economy or major companies.

"I don't think it's going to have a significant impact on businesses ... (because) most companies and the government already knew the general direction," he said.

"We respect the Constitutional Court's decision as much as possible. We also plan to cooperate as much as possible to correct the decision," he said.

To meet its 2021 goal, South Korea needs to reduce emissions by