Gangwon's Taebaek City was awarded in the clean energy institutional sector category of the ‘2025 Most Loved Brand Award.’ Taebaek is embarking on a significant transition to become a ‘clean energy city’ by promoting the ‘Energy Transition-Based Economic Promotion Development Project’ to move away from a coal-centered industrial structure.
Taebaek is a representative energy city in southern Gangwon. It has been consistently pushing forward concrete and practical strategies for transitioning to clean energy and realizing carbon neutrality.
Taebaek garnered international attention by announcing the ‘Five Major Projects for Energy Transition’ at the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) held in Baku, Azerbaijan, last November.
The key details include: ▲ establishment of clean methanol production facilities and key mineral industrial complexes ▲ creation of an underground research facility for research purposes (Taebaek URL) ▲ continuous establishment of wind power generation complexes ▲ creation of a forestry wood cluster in southern Gangwon ▲ smart mining projects (digitalization of the mining industry).
Taebaek URL is a pure research facility promoted jointly by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Atomic Energy Environment Corporation. Taebaek was ultimately selected as the construction candidate site, and the administrative procedures are currently underway.
These projects are being evaluated as concrete and practical strategies to overcome the regional extinction crisis faced by Taebaek and to achieve carbon neutrality goals. In February, Taebaek received an excellence award in the local government category at the ‘2025 Republic of Korea Green Climate Award’ hosted by the National Assembly Climate Change Forum.
Taebaek plans to advance even further to become a leading city in Korea that transitions its industrial structure to an environmentally friendly model and leads carbon neutrality as a representative city of clean energy.