Exploration of Korea’s national strategic position on including NF3 gas within the scope of national greenhouse gas regulations: Interpreting and applying global rules domestically

The Paris Agreement sets a rule to obligate all parties to submit national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory reports on seven greenhouse gases: CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, HFCs, PFCs, SF<SUB>6</SUB>, and NF₃. Developing countries are granted flexibility to report at least three gases CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O while the other four gases only need to be reported under specific conditions. Korea, which includes only six GHGs (excluding NF₃) in its national legal GHG definitions, has faced difficulty in directly applying the afore-mentioned global rule at the domestic level. Accordingly, this study, considering domestic circumstances in semiconductor and display-related industries, attempts to explore two questions: A) Can the flexibility rule for developing countries be applied to Korea? and B) To what extent can the global rule on reporting seven GHGs be applied to Korea’s domestic policies, including i) the nationally determined contribution (NDC), ii) the national GHG inventory system, and iii) the emission trading system (ETS). The first question is examined through the interpretation of global rules by the country differentiation system under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The second question is explored through a comparison of policies of developed country parties (Japan, the EU, and the US), other parties (Singapore and Saudi Arabia), and developing country parties (China and Taiwan). The study concludes that Korea’s national negotiation position of “other parties” can allow the flexibility rules to be applied to Korea. This research also suggests that Korea can include NF3 in the national GHG scope, provided there is a de-linking between Carbon Neutrality Basic Law and Korea-ETS in the short-term.