The government will finalize South Korea’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and submit it to the UN by September. 

The Presidential Committee on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth approved the 2035 nationally determined contribution(NDC) during a meeting chaired by acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday. 

The government began devising a “2035 NDC” proposal this month after holding some 100 rounds of discussions between March of last year and January of this year.

Once a proposal is drawn up, the government will collect opinions from related parties, including industries, civic groups and labor groups, and have the presidential committee deliberate over it before finalizing it.  

The countries that signed the Paris Agreement must submit their NDCs every five years. 

South Korea submitted its first NDC in 2020, vowing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 24-point-four percent by 2030 from levels in 2017. 

The following year, South Korea resubmitted the plan after updating its goal, this time promising to slash emissions 40 percent by 2030 compared with levels in 2018.

An NDC is an intermediate goal for the realization of carbon neutrality by 2050, based on the Paris Agreement.