Circles and Squares

The Hankyoreh

The Green Climate Fund in Songdo: Will Korea be the Key Player in a New Global Economy?

Emanuel Pastreich

April 14, 2013

Korea‘s success in luring the Green Climate Fund to Songdo International City confirms its increasing importance in the fields of finance and international relations. The selection of Songdo, an experimental city combining the best of Korean technology, global business acumen and cultural creativity, also hints at the appeal of Korean innovation and the potential to create a financial center in an age within which the economy moves according to different axes.

Interestingly, although Koreans were rightfully proud of this decision, there has been little discussion about the long-term implications of the new-born Green Climate Fund setting up shop in Korea for the nation’s global role.

The Green Climate Fund is just starting, but it is broadly perceived to have the potential to serve an institution that is as critical to the world economy, if not more so, than any other part of the Bretton Woods System.

When the World Bank was established in 1944 for the purpose of alleviating poverty, there was no awareness of the threat of climate change for human civilization, or its profound impact on developing societies. But Green Climate Fund is an institution that takes climate change head on, not just as a small part of its operations as is the case with the World Bank‘s “green bonds.” When this global institution dedicated to funding projects in the developing world for adaptation to ecological challenges and climate change mitigation sets up shop in Songdo over the year, it could become the core of a new green economic cluster. That cluster could formulate global responses to unprecedented climatic threats that go beyond our simplistic assumptions about nation states and economic growth. Read more of this post