Jong-ho Kim, President of KIBO, visits carbon neutrality site and listens to feedback

On the 9^th, the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KIBO) announced Jong-ho Kim, President of KIBO, visited PANASIA (CEO Soo-tae Lee), a global green energy equipment expert located in Gangseo-gu, Busan, and took time to discuss carbon neutrality.

The visit was arranged in celebration of the first anniversary of the government’s declaration of its carbon neutrality vision. It gave the president an opportunity to communicate with a leading company committed to achieving carbon neutrality and creating quality jobs and to listen to the industry’s feedback, including suggestions for turning carbon neutrality into reality.

PANASIA is an energy expert that develops essential technologies for facilitating carbon neutrality, such as hydrogen generation and carbon capture, utilization, and storage systems. The company is leading the way in carbon neutrality and has been locally and internationally recognized for its technology and business competence. For instance, the company was named among the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ 100 small giants in materials, parts, and equipment.

Soo-tae Lee, CEO of PANASIA, suggested in connection with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction technology, the key to carbon neutrality, that financial assistance plans should be developed based on objective and fair measurements of GHG emissions reductions.

President Jong-ho Kim said, “KIBO is the first organization in Korea to develop a ‘carbon price model,’ which converts the impact of a company’s GHG reduction into monetary value, in order to discover and provide full support to companies in eco-friendly, low-carbon, and new energy industries. By incorporating the model into financial products, we are running a green financial support system.” He continued, “Recently, the government has raised national GHG emissions reduction targets, and we will provide proactive support to keep the industry from suffering from the burden of the transition to carbon neutrality.”

KIBO plans to adopt the climate action bond program, a carbon neutrality-friendly financial product, and issue new bonds worth ₩450 billion in 2022. The plan is intended for KIBO to tap into its carbon price model to find and support innovative SMEs and startups, leading the way in carbon neutrality, such as companies with GHG reduction technologies.

Busan = Reporter Hae-yeon, Kim