Lawyer urges Korea to shift K-GX support to strategic projects
Ji Hyun-young, a lawyer at Seoul National University, recommended that Korea's K-GX strategy shift from individual company support to strategic project-unit support to achieve industrial and economic structural transformation and establish a decarbonized growth foundation.
Our take
Will Korea's green transformation bills give energy transition investors project-based support?
Korea's green transformation bills do not yet give energy transition investors project-based support, since the four bills were still under debate in September 2026 and project-level funding is one lawyer's recommendation.
The bills overlap on technologies and support targets across three ministries, so the eligible route is unclear. What decides the outcome is whether the final laws name power sector and flexibility projects, which this discussion does not address.
What the source says
- Ji Hyun-young The core of K-GX industrial policy should be redesigned as a mission-driven conditional support system, focusing on how to transform industries along specific paths and integrate support, regulation, and performance feedback.
- Ji Hyun-young Six key directions for K-GX institutionalization include integrated governance/performance management, sector-specific transition paths/strategic projects, public sharing of early risks/infrastructure, early market creation/regulatory schedule linkage, private capital attraction principles, and conditional support/readjustment.
- Ji Hyun-young The state should share the costs for early risks and infrastructure, supporting companies' capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX), and backing companies' RE100 implementation based on public infrastructure like renewable energy infrastructure.
- Ji Hyun-young Public funds should focus on areas where private capital struggles, providing conditional support that is readjusted based on performance.
- Ji Hyun-young Current K-GX related bills (Carbon Neutral Industry Act, Climate Tech Act, Industrial GX Promotion Act, SME Carbon Neutrality Promotion Act) contain meaningful content but have overlapping support targets, similar technologies, and fragmented regulatory special provisions and certification systems across ministries.
- Ji Hyun-young Different terms like 'carbon neutral technology,' 'climate tech,' 'green transition technology,' and 'carbon neutral innovation technology' are used interchangeably across the K-GX related bills.
- Ji Hyun-young The Carbon Neutral Industry Act is positively evaluated for including diverse support mechanisms such as Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfD), production tax credits, and subsidies/tax reductions for buyers and users, but is criticized for its focus on individual company designation rather than transition projects.
- Ji Hyun-young The Industrial GX Promotion Act is praised for establishing a conditional support system, legalizing sector-specific roadmaps, linking implementation tasks with companies, and considering transition costs, but raises concerns about how privately proposed sector-specific roadmaps will align with national greenhouse gas reduction targets (NDC).
- Ji Hyun-young The SME Carbon Neutrality Promotion Act is positively evaluated for establishing a support system for SMEs, expanding support across the full lifecycle, and creating a basis for joint large-SME reductions in supply chains, but is criticized for being too focused on carbon markets and lacking criteria for prioritizing support linked to quantitative targets like NDC.
- Ji Hyun-young The Climate Tech Act is positively evaluated for introducing climate value assessment for outcome-based support and integrated support for strategic projects beyond individual companies, but needs improvement due to insufficient linkage between climate value assessment, actual commercialization support, and financial/tax incentives, and its design being centered on startups and ventures.
For investors — Infrastructure funds should wait for the final support design before building this money into a Korean energy transition case.
Lenders should check whether support that is conditional and readjusted on performance can be relied on in debt sizing.
Watch: Monitoring the legislative progress and harmonization efforts for the four K-GX related bills across the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
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