Environment at a Glance: Korea
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
Korea has a relatively large export-oriented economy, supported by a strong industrial base dominated by large conglomerates. Manufacturing and energy-intensive industries, such as electronics, transport equipment (automotive, shipbuilding), chemicals, iron and steel, are predominant. Gross domestic product (GDP) has grown faster than in most OECD countries and, GDP per person exceeded the OECD averaged since 2020.
Korea is among the world’s most densely populated countries It is a relatively small, mountainous peninsula with over 3 200 islands, with a temperate climate marked by wide variations in temperature and rainfall. The peninsula is largely divided into highlands in the east and lowlands in the west. Forested mountains cover about 64% of the territory, leaving limited space for settlement. Around 70% of the population lives in urban areas, particularly in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and along the coasts, leading to considerable regional disparities. Forests and coastal ecosystems provide an important habitat for Korea’s rich biodiversity.
Korea has limited domestic natural resources. It has no oil resources and very limited natural gas reserves, and produces only small amounts of anthracite. The country therefore depends heavily on imports of energy and mineral resources.
Although Korea has reached a relative decoupling between GDP real growth, and energy use and production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, these have been generally increasing since 2000. Per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint, i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been fluctuating but generally increased until 2018. They started to decrease afterwards but remain above the OECD average. Demand-based emissions are higher than production-based ones, meaning that Korea is a net importer of GHG emissions embodied in its final demand (i.e. demand for goods and services by all residents).
Energy industries and manufacturing constitute more than half of emissions, followed by industrial processes and product use. The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector acts as a small and decreasing carbon sink.
Korea has negligible fossil-fuel resources and imports almost all of them. Its energy mix is dominated by fossil fuels: while the share of oil has decreased since 2000, the shares of coal and natural gas have increased. With less than 4% of total energy supply in 2025, renewables play a minor role. The same is true for electricity production.
While emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) have started to decrease in recent years, and are below 2000 levels, non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) and ammonia emissions increased since 2000. Emission intensities, both per person and per GDP, remain below or close to the OECD average.
With one of the lowest renewable freshwater resources per person among OECD countries, Korea is water-poor. The country therefore suffers from medium to high water stress, coupled with high per person abstractions.
Connection rates to wastewater treatment have improved since 2000, both in terms of total connection to treatment plants and of treatment levels. In 2024, over 94% of the population was connected to advanced (tertiary) treatment.
Korea’s per person municipal waste generation is below the OECD average but has increased since 2000. Waste management has improved; landfilling being gradually replaced by recycling and incineration with energy recovery. Additionally, Korea has one of the highest recycling rates among OECD countries.
Korea is one of the few OECD countries where per person domestic consumption (and material footprint) has increased since 2000. Material productivity has increased at about the same rate as the OECD average, although it remains below it.
Like many OECD countries, the bulk of materials is made up of non-metallic minerals, though fossil carriers represent an important share, mostly due to the in-country refining capacities.
Despite the relatively small size, Korea benefits from diverse biotic resources and a beautiful natural environment due to a unique geography, which features the coexistence of forest and coastal ecosystems. Its territory is mostly mountainous, with 64% of the land comprised of mountains surrounded by the ocean, providing excellent conditions for the existence of rich biodiversity. The number of native species is estimated to be higher than 100 000. Wetlands and tidal flats are crucial habitats for the formation of diverse and distinct species. Wetlands are important for biodiversity in that they provide habitats for unique organisms, which evolve from environments that are different from those of terrestrial and aquatic organisms. However, with the gradual reduction in wetlands, these species are threatened (CBD, n.d.[1]).
Terrestrial protected areas are on par with the OECD average, but below the OECD-Asia-Oceania average. Marine protected areas are negligible. More efforts are needed to reach the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target of protecting 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
Environmentally related tax revenue as a share of GDP for Korea has generally remained above the OECD and OECD Asia Oceania averages throughout the 2000s, for years which data are available. 1 In 2018, Korea’s ERTR amounted to 2.05% of GDP, above the OECD average (1.60%) and the OECD Asia-Oceania average (1.62%). From 2020 to 2023 the gap narrowed, but Korea still remains above both, representing 1.38% of GDP, compared with 1.33% across the OECD and 1.27% in OECD Asia Oceania.
Revenue comes mainly from energy taxes, which raised 3.37% of total tax revenue in 2023, largely from petrol products and fuel excise taxes. Transport taxes raised a further 1.80% of total tax revenue, while pollution and resource taxes generated negligible amounts.
In total, 98.5% of GHG emissions in Korea were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate2 (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in Korea consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices, which cover 80% of GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, cover 55.3% of emissions in 2023. Direct fossil fuel subsidies cover 1.1% of emissions. About 13% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net ECRs are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 13.1% of the country's total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average zero in the agriculture and fisheries sector. The agriculture and fisheries sector accounts for 0.5% of GHG emissions (OECD, 2024[2]).
The share of environmentally related government research and development (R&D) budget has fluctuated since 2000 and is now on an increasing trend, at 2.7% in 2024. The share of renewables in public energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) has been increasing until 2019 and has declined to 14.1% in 2024.
Korea is home to numerous environmentally related inventions. Its per person inventions (of inventors residing in country) is the highest in the OECD. The share of environmentally related in total inventions is also above the OECD average.
Korea has one of the highest gross bilateral ODA shares of country programmable aid and ODA to least developed countries among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members. However, its ODA represents a mere 0.2% of gross national income. Climate is one of the priorities of its development cooperation programme, which focusses on innovation and effectiveness. The share of bilateral ODA for climate change has increased considerably since 2018, to reach 63% in 2023-24, a high share by DAC standards. By contrast, the share targeting biodiversity has increased much less, to stand at 5.4% in 2023-24, below the DAC average (OECD, 2026[3]).
References
[1] CBD (n.d.), Country profiles: Korea, https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile?country=kr.
[3] OECD (2026), Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/korea_d358baed-en.html.
[2] OECD (2024), Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b44c74e6-en.
Further reading
IEA (2020), Korea 2020 Energy Policy Review, IEA Energy Policy Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/2f15bd8f-en
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← 1. Korea's time series is incomplete and data is unavailable for 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2024
← 2. Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) is the sum of fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradeable permits that effectively put a price on carbon emissions. The Net ECR equals the ECR minus fossil fuel subsidies that decrease pre-tax fossil fuel prices.