South Korea has one of the lowest food self-sufficiency rates among OECD countries. Supply chain constraints during the pandemic brought the country’s reliance on food imports into focus. Now, the crisis in Ukraine, coupled with India’s restriction of wheat exports, threatens to further raise domestic food prices. Even after experiencing a sudden spike in global…
May 22, 2022
Korean firms dominate 30% of the global electric vehicle battery market. But with the procurement of key raw material inputs for these batteries threatened by geo-strategic rivalries, the government and manufacturers are pushing to diversify both sourcing and processing of minerals like cobalt, nickel, and lithium. In February, the Australian government signed a “Memorandum of…
May 2, 2022
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to reverse President Moon’s nuclear reactor phase-out policy, claiming that it has led to increased reliance on fossil fuels and that nuclear power provides a better path to net-zero emissions. The Korean public has generally expressed support for nuclear energy. Close to 60% of respondents in a 2017 poll supported resuming…
April 18, 2022
Samsung partnered with the Korean government to launch the Eco Delta Smart Village, a futuristic community that aims to achieve sustainability through data integration. Residents’ rent will be waived in exchange for personal data collected over a 3-to-5-year period. The USD 1.8 billion project hopes to be a template for smart cities around the world…