Imagining Future Korean Carbon Markets: Coproduction of Carbon Markets, Product Markets, and the Government

Abstract

The politics surrounding Korean cap and trade policy is riddled with competing visions of carbon markets, product markets, and the government. Broadly drawing on concepts from constructivism (‘coproduction') and economic sociology (‘embeddedness'), this paper argues that the relationship between carbon markets and product markets is characterized as ‘interactional coproduction', while the relationship between carbon markets and the government is based on ‘constitutive coproduction'. Moreover, I argue that, in social conflicts, the future of carbon markets is interpretively diverse with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gas emission information, and greenhouse gas emission permits. The future of product markets is at issue regarding market competitiveness, business inequality, and social inequality. In the Act on the Allocation and Trading of Greenhouse-Gas Emission Permits, the envisaged roles of the Korean government are embedded in the specific policy schemes of carbon markets. The government is viewed as regulator, supporter, market manager, and participant, but not as redistributor.

Key Words:

• carbon market
• cap and trade
• climate change
• coproduction
• embeddedness

Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) and the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2013S1A3A2053087). This paper is partially based on my 2012 KIPA report entitled ‘Conflict studies on Carbon Emission Trading Policies'. The earlier version of this paper was presented in the 2012 Fall Conference of the Korea Association of Science and Technology Studies. Special thanks to Jae-Kak Han, Byoung-Yoon Kim, Sang-Hyun Jin, and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments as well as Da-Hye Lee and Haejun Moon for their assistance.

Notes

1 Scholars from the constructivist camp who also make such an argument include Jefferey Checkel and Emanuel Alder.

2 Internal document of the Ministry of Environment entitled ‘The Necessity of the Operation of Carbon Emission Policy Under the Single Agency System'.

3 This organization consists of 15 labour, agricultural, and environmental organizations including the Green Korea, Democratic Labour Party, Energy Climate Policy Institute, Energy Justice Actions, Jungnong, and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

4 This organization consists of 20 civic organizations including the Green Korea, the Korea Federation of Environmental Movement, Environmental Justice, and Energy Justice Actions.

5 Public statement of the Korea Federation of Environmental Movement entitled ‘From whom was the enforcement decree of the allocation and trading of Greenhouse-Gas Emission Permits that has been problematic from the start ring', 23 July 2012.

6 According to the Enforcement Decree of AATGGEP, sensitive companies subject to free allocation are as follows: (1) companies that have a trade intensity of more than 10% and the rate of increasing production costs of more than 5%, (2) those that have trade intensity of more than 30%, or (3) those that have the rate of increasing production costs of more than 30%.