Green Budget is being discussed and implemented as an important policy tool for carbon neutrality in many countries and international institutions, such as Korea, France, the EU, the OECD and the UN. Seoul also introduced Green Budget by initiating a pilot ‘Climate Budget’ project for the city’s three departments in 2022. For a comprehensive implementation, classification methods and a manual for climate budget reports need to be further developed. This research classifies the city’s budget into reducing, emitting, mixed and neutral in accordance with GHG mitigation/emission effects. In addition, each budget is tagged with emission sector, project type, and budget sources etc.

Out of a total 47.7 trillion budget won in 2022, the climate-related (reducing, emitting, mixed) budget is 4.29 trillion won, accounting for 9.6% of the total budget. The budget for emissions reduction is 1.29 trillion won (2.7%), the emitting budget is 1.77 trillion won (3.7%) and the mixed budget is 1.50 trillion won (3.1%).

The Climate Budget report is prepared by both implementing departments and offices/headquarters. The report should include purpose, period, the budget amount of each project and specification of the project types. Using available reduction factors or other appropriate methodologies, carbon savings and additional budgets need to be presented. It necessary to be stressed that Climate Budget is not limited to an evaluation of the effects of GHG emissions but is a ‘budgeting process’ that should secure a sufficient budget for climate-friendly projects and an additional budget for reduction measures for emitting and mixed projects.