APG Asset Management, a subsidiary of pension administrator, APG, has written to the Prime Minister of Korea warning him against building new coal power plants.

A letter to Prime Minister, Kim Bu-gyeom, from Yoo-kyung Park, head of APAC responsible investment and governance for APG Asset Management, raised concerns about Korea’s plan to build new coal-fired power plants.

It relates to three plants with a combined power capacity of 6.3 gigawatts under construction in Gangwon Province.

Whilst Park praised Korea for its “remarkable achievements” in response to climate change, such as the 2050 carbon-neutral declaration, he said it is “hard to believe that a new coal-fired power plant will be built in Korea”.

“It will inevitably become poisonous to the Korean economy and further to the future of mankind,” he stated in the letter that was published on Solutions for our Climate.

“Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions will pose a significant burden on not only the private-sector participants but also other domestic businesses in the export-driven country,” he wrote.

He warned that failure to phase out coal will incur a substantial cost of offsetting carbon emissions and operational losses starting no later than 2030.

In addition, APG, which is a major shareholder in the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has requested KEPCO to withdraw its investment in overseas coal power plants (Bungang 2 in Vietnam and units 9 and 10 in Jawa, Indonesia).

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