Mr. Yeonchul Yoo (1961) is the Vice-Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is also an ambassador for Climate Change, in the South Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Yoo has served the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more than 30 years. Within the Ministry he served as Director of the Environment and Science Division and also in the Energy and Climate Change Division. He was also the Director-General for the International Cooperation within the Ministry of Environment. Before his role as Ambassador for Climate Change, he served as Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the State of Kuwait and as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Korean Permanent Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Mr. Yoo received a bachelor’s degree at Yonsei University and a master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Reading, UK. He also completed the Foreign Service Programme at the University of Oxford in the UK. 

From 2010 to 2011, Ambassador Yoo served as Director of the President’s Green Growth Committee and made significant contributions to the establishment of the GGGI (Global Green Growth Institute). He also played an important role in getting the GCF (Green Climate Fund) to be based in Korea. By facilitating the international transition to a low-carbon economy in climate change negotiations, he helped South Korea actively play a bridge role between developed and developing countries.

Ambassador Yoo has stated, “the developed countries insist on action for action, while the developing countries insist on action for money. This means the developed countries request developing countries take action together but the developing countries insist if the developing countries will take mitigation action, we need the financial support from the developed countries. So the ‘action for action’ and ‘action for money’ is the very challenging issue is the negotiation. 

“With regard to the challenging issues we are facing in the climate change negotiations, we view that the success of COP24 depends on how much flexibility will be given to developing countries and the answer is finance; how much financial support will be given to developing countries is a very essential element for the success of COP24.”

Learn More

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/31odEMTsayg
Yeonchul Yoo, Interview at UNFCCC Climate Action Studio

http://www.mofa.go.kr/eng/brd/m_5676/view.do?seq=320581&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchWord=&srchTp=&multi_itm_seq=0&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&company_cd=&company_nm=

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20190618005300325

https://p4gpartnerships.org/content/yoo-yeon-chul

http://www.segye.com/newsView/20191014512165?OutUrl=naver