Politics · Other · 1 hr ago
Gyeonggi Province to end climate-action rewards program by year-end
South Korea's Gyeonggi Province plans to end its climate-action rewards program by the end of this year.
Launched in July 2024, the scheme gave residents local-currency rewards for completing 16 everyday activities to cut carbon emissions through an app.
Participants could receive up to 60,000 won a year, and seven cities and counties added rewards of up to 30,000 won.
The province stopped reward payments after July activities because of financial difficulties, although the program had grown to 2.03 million app users.
It says keeping the app's servers running without rewards would cost at least 20 billion won, and it has left the program out of next year's budget.
The app servers are due to operate only until year-end, with no further rewards planned.
Gyeonggi Province plans to end its Climate Action Opportunity Income program by the end of 2026.
The program’s rewards stopped after July activities because of financial difficulties.
The app will remain in operation until year-end, but its server costs are expected to be at least 2 billion won.
The program had 2.03 million app users at the time of the report.
It began in July 2024 and offered residents rewards for carrying out climate-friendly activities.
- Who
- Gyeonggi Province is ending the program, which had 2.03 million app users.
- What
- The Climate Action Opportunity Income program is due to end by year-end, after its reward payments stopped.
- When
- The program began in July 2024. Rewards stopped after July 2026 activities, and the app is to operate until the end of 2026.
- Where
- Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
- Why
- The province cited financial difficulties and said the expected benefit did not justify the cost of operating the app without rewards.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Gyeonggi Province launched the Climate Action Opportunity Income program.
The app had about 890,000 registered users.
The app had about 1.74 million registered users.
Seven cities and counties began joining the program in stages and offering additional rewards.
Gyeonggi Province and participating local governments stopped reward payments.
The province plans to end the program and stop operating its app server.
- Program launch
- July 2024
- Registered users
- 2.03 million
- Maximum annual provincial reward
- 60,000 won
- 2026 program budget
- 35 billion won
- Spent through July rewards
- 30.7 billion won
- App server operating cost
- At least 2 billion won
1 source
What people are saying
Due to financial difficulties, reward payments stopped after July activities, making the program effectively meaningless, so we decided to continue it only until the end of this year.
The app server alone costs at least 2 billion won to operate without rewards, and we do not believe it would deliver value commensurate with that cost.