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Hwang Seong-yeol stood at the edge of a golden field, watching nervously as a combine harvester crawled through his rice fields, ripping up soil and stalks. Its steady hum filled the moist autumn air as grain was loaded into a truck waiting at the other end of the muddy paddy field.
Hwang said it was the last day of one of the toughest seasons in his three decades of farming. He and other farmers feel helpless against increasingly erratic weather, which they link to climate change, and the damage it causes to their crops. This has complicated their work and created uncertainty over their future.
Hwang is one of the five South Korean Farmers recently sued state utility Korea Electric Power Corporation and its power-producing subsidiaries, alleging that their reliance on coal and other fossil fuels has accelerated climate change and damaged their crops.
The lawsuit raises questions about whether the role of power companies in fueling climate change and resulting agricultural losses can be quantified. Yeni Kim, a lawyer with the Seoul-based nonprofit Solutions for Our Climate, which is handling the case, said it is the first of its kind in South Korea.
The case underscores the challenges South Korea, a manufacturing power that industrialized long after Western countries and is now pressuring others to abandon fossil fuels, faces in transitioning to clean energy.
Unstable weather causes ‘agricultural disasters’
Hwang’s farm is on a reclaimed coastal plain along South Korea’s western seaboard, where sparkling waterways cross the dark, rich soil and flocks of migratory geese drift by like a giant, living quilt.
Significant rains in September and October were followed by severe frosts that stunted plant growth. Summer floods caused further damage before fungal diseases emerged in the wet autumn.
Hwang would have preferred to harvest in the dry season, but had to do so early because persistent rain caused the rice stalks to become buried in the soil, allowing ripe grains to grow. That day was only the second dry day in late October after 18 consecutive days of rain.
“It’s really troubling – we know how much rice we should normally get from 30,000 pyong (25 acres) of land, but the yield has been steadily decreasing every year,” said Hwang, who expects this year’s harvest to be 20% to 25% less than normal.
“We started to question why it is always farmers – who have done nothing wrong – who bear the consequences of the climate crisis. Shouldn’t we demand something from the people who are actually causing it?”
Farmers are “naturally vulnerable” to climate change, said lawyer Kim.
In an annual climate report in April, South Korea’s government detailed that extreme weather events in 2024, which was the country’s hottest year ever, triggered a series of “agricultural disasters” caused by heavy summer rains that destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of crop land, followed by several weeks of extreme heat that ruined even more crops, mostly rice.
KEPCO Group is responsible for 0.4% of global climate damage, lawyer says
After talking to Hwang and others at farmers markets, Kim and his colleagues decided to file the lawsuit, which represents plaintiffs from across South Korea.
They say KEPCO, which monopolizes power transmission and wholly owns its subsidiaries, should bear some of the blame for the volatile weather, citing what they say are excessive carbon emissions and a delayed transition to renewable energy.
Based on Kim’s analysis of publicly available data, from 2011-2022, companies produced about 30% of South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions and about 0.4% of global emissions.
“Therefore, they should also bear 0.4% responsibility for farmers’ losses,” Kim said.
The lawsuit seeks an initial damage claim of 5 million won ($3,400) per customer, an amount that is likely to be adjusted as the case progresses. The plaintiffs are also demanding a symbolic 2,035 won ($1.4) to urge the government to phase out coal power plants by 2035, ahead of the 2040 target.
According to government data, the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix in 2024 was only 10.5%, and five KEPCO subsidiaries relied on coal for more than 71% of the electricity produced that year.
KEPCO told The Associated Press it considers carbon reduction an important responsibility, citing its goal of cutting emissions 40% by 2030 from 2018 levels. But he declined to comment further on the lawsuit, saying he could not “share information that could influence the decision.”
experts Say nothing of the rising debt, now exceeding 200 trillion won ($137 billion), accumulated over decades of government policies that have kept electricity rates low for households and industries, limiting the utility’s ability to expand and modernize the power grid or invest in renewable energy.
The uncertain impact of the largely symbolic lawsuit
Yun Sun-jin, a professor soul National University said the lawsuit has symbolic importance, but questioned whether the blame could fall solely on KEPCO, given that everyone benefits from its cheap electricity.
He said, when climate change is a “global problem”, it would be difficult to prove that the utility directly caused agricultural losses.
This draws attention to South Korea’s need for a more effective approach to renewable energy, Yun said, including regulating solar investments, expanding sources such as offshore wind and ending KEPCO’s monopoly on power transmission to encourage other competitors with different technologies.
According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, South Korea is expected to reach its target of 32.95% renewable energy by about 2038 – much slower than the average of 33.49% in 2023 among developed economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Some experts, including Yun, have warned that South Korea’s slow shift toward renewable energy could hinder its ambitions in advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence, as its tech giants face global pressure to work on clean energy.
“Climate change and carbon neutrality are not just environmental concerns – they are economic issues, ultimately about jobs and our survival,” Yun said.
From tangerines to rice: a common threat
The impacts of extreme weather resulting from climate change are far-reaching in South Korea.
Farmers now face higher costs and have to use more labor to produce the same or less yield.
Ma Yong-un, an apple farmer in the south-eastern city of Hamyang, said he is using more pesticides because prolonged heat and humidity make it harder to control pests and diseases. The apples that grew in cooler climates in his father’s time are less abundant and tastier, he said.
From tangerine farmers on Jeju Island to strawberry growers in Sancheong in the southeast, farmers are trying to find ways to survive.
For the first time since he started farming in 2011, Ma coated all the fruits from his 2,200 trees with a mixture of copper sulphate and lime to prevent fungal infections and skin damage from strong sunlight.
He began thinking seriously about climate change in 2018, when a heavy snowstorm in April damaged flower buds, resulting in his worst harvest yet. Farming It’s getting harder every year and he’s constantly wondering how much longer he can continue.
“I think about it every day,” said Ma, who is raising two teenage boys with his wife. “The biggest concern is my children.”