damages of 3, 400 trillion korean won ( us $ 2. 6 trillion ) 1. as the effects of global warming intensify, natural disasters such as heatwaves, wildfires, floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and widespread, causing immeasurable damage. the longer the delay in the climate change response, the more these crises and health emergencies will pose a serious threat to our daily lives. in a national awareness survey on climate change's impact on health, approximately 63 % of respondents considered it " serious. " however, in the future, the number of people who perceive the climate crisis as a health crisis will increase even more. 2 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches second, the republic of korea has an industrial structure that makes it difficult to achieve short - term greenhouse gas reductions, and any failure to respond proactively could severely restrict exports due to global environmental regulations. the fossil fuel dependency rate of the republic of korea ( as of 2021 ) is high, at 64 %, while the renewable energy proportion is low, at 7 %. in comparison, the united states, germany and japan all have renewable energy levels between 20 % and 40 %. furthermore, across all industries, the republic of korea has a high share of carbon - intensive sectors, such as oil refining, chemicals, cement, and steel, which ( as of 2021 ) account for 5. 3 % of our economy, a high number compared to major advanced countries like the united states ( 2. 5 % ), germany ( 2. 8 % ) and france ( 1. 7 % ). 3 with such energy and industrial structures, the transition to a low - carbon economy poses a burden for export - oriented companies. however, considering the rapid introduction of global environmental regulations, delays in changing the business paradigm are no longer feasible. examples of these new regulations include the european union's carbon border adjustment mechanism ( cbam ) 4, the united states'inflation reduction act ( ira ), the re100 campaign by global it companies like apple and microsoft, and the strong measures taken by major asset management companies like blackrock and vanguard to exclude environmentally harmful companies that do not meet esg standards. financial institutions that support exporting companies are no exception. the glasgow financial alliance for net zero ( gfanz ), comprised of banks, investment firms and others, is urging financial institutions to demonstrate tangible results in achieving the targets they have voluntarily disclosed for carbon neutrality. as we approach 2030

, the pressures of global regulations and goal attainment related to environmental issues will only intensify. in line with this, the republic of korea has made a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 % from 2018 levels by 2030, and to increase official development assistance ( oda ) for green projects. while our economy may face challenges during this transition, when we fulfill our responsibilities as members of the international community, we will then be able to actively demand that advanced countries, which have historically emitted significant amounts of greenhouse gases during their development process, fulfill their technological and financial support responsibilities to developing countries. third, tackling climate change presents both risks and opportunities. the covid19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis, but it has also presented unprecedented growth opportunities for bio - tech companies such as biontech and moderna, who have successfully developed vaccines. the climate change crisis will also present opportunities for companies that are prepared. global climate venture companies like opower in the u. s., a provider of big data for energy conservation, or like climateworks in switzerland, which converts carbon dioxide into solid carbon for sale, or like rubicon, also in the u. s., which creates resource circulation platforms, are all experiencing rapid growth. globally, climate tech investment funds have grown threefold in two years, reaching us $ 45 billion in 2021. innovative technologies in the fields of environment, energy, agriculture, and geographic observation are being commercialized at an astonishing pace. this will provide challenging business opportunities for the young itsavvy generation in korea. the bank of korea is also making multifaceted efforts in response to climate change. we are continuously expanding research and conducting stress tests to evaluate the 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches impact of climate change on financial institutions. this includes the development of stress test models. 5 additionally, we are actively expanding our efforts in foreign exchange reserve management by incorporating esg investments, along with other initiatives, to address climate change. moving forward, we intend to explore market creating measures to promote green finance and policy tools to alleviate the transition burden on small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) in collaboration with financial authorities. supporting smes in green finance is an important policy task because if smes fail to transition smoothly to environmentally friendly practices, large corporations connected through export supply chains will also find it difficult to evade global environmental regulations. however, these smes face difficulties in benefiting from green finance due to their low credit