South Korea’s Busan, officially the nation’s second largest city with around 3.5mn residents, in late August hosted the World Climate Industry Expo and Korea Energy Show 2025.

With hundreds of stalls visited by thousands of attendees over three days, the event served both to demonstrate South Korea’s own leading role in all aspects of regional green energy generation, from solar and wind – offshore and on – to nuclear, hydrogen, and more. EPC – engineering, procurement and construction aspects of renewables expansion featured prominently across the two main halls of stalls as did governmental representation in the form of national utility KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation), and major household names from across the peninsula – Doosan, POSCO and more.

One governmental agency with a presence in both halls during the event was the host-city’s Busan Development Institute (BDI). Having positioned itself at the heart of Busan’s low-carbon transition, by supplying the municipal government with evidence-based policy advice as it pursues a greener energy path, the BDI occupies a pivotal space in local energy policy. By linking that which is possible with those who need to work to achieve it, either at the policy level, through agreeing funding or final implementation on the street, BDI plays a major role in turning Busan green.

As such, and playing such a key role in carrying out research on informed planning for distributed renewables, energy efficiency and low-emission transport across the bustling city, the BDI is, as their own literature indicates, behind the city’s seventh Regional Energy Plan (REP). Finalised earlier in the summer, REP 7 lays out set short-term targets for electricity self-sufficiency from renewables by way of 74 projects combining supply-side and demand-management measures.

While the package itself seeks to scale up distributed power - including rooftop solar, fuel-cells and energy storage systems, many of which are evident at sites across the city, according to city literature it also aims to raise local resilience as the national grid adapts to larger shares of intermittent generation.

One all-important number shared with AsiaElec at the event was the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from 2018 levels by as early as 2030; a number 5% higher than the national goal in GHG reduction, BDI researcher Jaehong Ki said at one of the city’s two exhibition stalls.

To achieve this goal, Ki said the city is working city-wide with the biggest contributor to GHG numbers across Korea – the building sector. At present, and with much of the total in GHG emissions in the sector coming from heating units, air-conditioning and mainframes, if the BDI gets its way, the Busan building sector at least will see a 60% cut in emissions over the next five years.

Other BDI analytical work on local energy systems has also helped frame how a range of green projects in and around the city will eventually play out and be financed.

To this end, public events in the Busan area as well as national-level engagements have combined to promote the city’s green agenda in the eyes of millions.

At the open-to-the-public August “Energy Super Week” at the BEXCO exhibition centre, this was obvious as cleaner transportation options and decarbonisation of the sector was a highly conspicuous element on show. By extension BDI’s wider strategy coupled to central government efforts has seen moves to convert local municipal bus fleets to hydrogen power, with many already operational near BEXCO and in the city centre.

As progress is made on replacing an estimated 1,000 diesel and CNG vehicles in Busan with hydrogen-fuelled buses by the end of the year, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) says the number of CO2 producing buses will only continue to decrease.

Itself just one aspect of the city’s green path, the switch to hydrogen-powered buses does, however, dovetail with Busan’s broader push on low-emission mobility. BDI research into lifecycle emissions and infrastructure needs for hydrogen refuelling is well underway as the agency’s policy notes have reportedly outlined the importance of coordinating bus depot upgrades, vehicle maintenance capability and key hydrogen production or supply logistics facilities, a MoE press release states.

In addition and according to the Busan is good widely seen city slogan and accompanying website, recognition from external bodies has also bolstered the city’s profile: Busan projects won Green World Awards in 2025 for neighbourhood ESG initiatives and ecological restoration, lending an added layer of credibility to the municipality’s claim that locally led, evidence-driven interventions can deliver both environmental and social gains.

BDI’s role in this, despite South Korea as a nation being one of the lowest ranked countries on the OECD renewable energy provision list according to Ki when speaking with AsiaElec, is essentially to serve as as analyst, convenor and evaluator to ensure such gains are measurable and ultimately achievable.

As a city already producing more renewable power than it needs though, Busan currently sends the excess northwest to Seoul – Korea’s capital of just over 10mn and the base for increasing numbers of AI-linked data centres and other tech industry HQs.

For the Busan Development Institute meanwhile, Jaehong Ki, and all those working behind the scenes to make Korea’s second city its number one in green energy production and eventual GHG emission reduction, the group’s continued research and policy engagement at the local level will eventually prove critical nationwide as other cities look to Busan for examples of how to work toward carbon neutrality by 2050. The all-too simple ‘Busan is good’ phrase could and should be applied elsewhere across the peninsula for other cities committed to measurable reductions in emissions, increased use of reliable green transportation options, and an all-round cleaner, greener Korean peninsula.