Prof. Dai-Yeun Jeong is presently the Director of Asia Climate Change Education Center and an emeritus prof. of environmental sociology at Jeju National University in South Korea. He received BA and MA degree in sociology from Korea University (South Korea), and PhD in environmental sociology from University of Queensland (Australia). He was a prof. of environmental sociology at Jeju National University (South Korea) from 1981 to 2012. His past major professional activities include a teaching professor at University of Sheffield in UK, the president of Asia-Pacific Sociological Association, a delegate of South Korean Government to UNFCCC and OECD environmental meeting, and a member of Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development Republic of Korea, etc. He has published 60 environment-related research papers in domestic and international journals and 13 books including Environmental Sociology. He has conducted 100 unpublished environment-related research projects funded by domestic and international organizations.
Abstract
It has been scientifically proved that the human-induced greenhouse gases is the major contributor to climate change. A variety of strategies are being implemented to reduce the emission of human-induced greenhouse gases at a global, national and regional level. The strategies are the measures responding to climate change. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has adopted carbon neutral society as the goal of human society by 2025 at a global level in the name of Paris Agreement having been adopted in 2015.
In accordance with the Paris Agreement, all national governments are establishing the strategies for achieving a carbon neutral society by 2050. Nonetheless, it is quite rare to develop a framework for achieving a carbon neutral society. In this context, this paper aims at presenting a desirable framework for creating a carbon-neutral society which is applicable at a global level. In order to achieve the objective, this presentation will be composed of six parts as below.
The first part will introduce some debates on the issues related to climate change such as the conceptual definition and causes of climate change, and United Nations’ point of view on climate change.
The second part will review the current status and prospect of climate change and its impacts on nature and humans/society at a global level
The third part will examine the concept and implications of carbon neutrality. Its concept and implications will be examined comparatively with the concept and implications of low-carbon and carbon-zero in order to understand carbon neutrality more clear.
The fourth part will introduce United Nations’ strategy on carbon neutrality adopted in 2015 and aimed at achieving by 2050 at a global level. This introduction will be proceeded by comparing the differences with the low-carbon strategy which has been promoted by United Nations before 2015.
Based on the above findings, the fifth part will propose a desirable framework for creating a carbon-neutral society. The framework will be composed of two steps. The first step is how to approach for establishing a desirable carbon-neutral framework. The second step is the real and concrete approaches to creating a carbon-neutral society on the basis of the first step. The second step will be composed of nature-based, technology-based, and societal system-based approach. As a concluding remark, what capacity should be built will be discussed for creating a carbon-neutral society.