The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment renewed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the UNFCCC Secretariat for the International Greenhouse Gas Experts Training Program on the morning of the 24th at Yeosu Expo.
Noura Hamrazi, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat, and Lee Ho-hyeon, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, attended the signing ceremony. With this renewal, the two sides’ educational partnership will continue for another five years until December 2031.
The first memorandum of understanding was signed in 2017. It was extended once in 2021, and this is the second renewal. The structure in which Korea supports capacity building for developing countries beyond its own statistical capabilities is a rare example in climate diplomacy.
The program is designed and run by the Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea, an affiliated institution of the ministry. This institution, which has managed national greenhouse gas inventories since 2010, launched the training course in 2011. In its early years, it used its own budget to invite public officials from developing countries to Seoul for training.
What made the difference was methodology. Rather than theory-based lectures, the program adopted a hands-on approach that familiarizes participants with actual reporting tools. The core content includes the greenhouse gas inventory calculation software distributed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the reporting format tools for the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement. Graduates can return home and immediately be deployed to work on their countries’ national inventories.
This practicality caught the attention of the United Nations. In 2017, the UNFCCC Secretariat formally partnered with Korea. Since then, the planning and operation of the program have shifted to a joint system. Under this division of roles, the Korean government handles the budget, participant selection, and overall administration, while the UNFCCC provides some instructors. By 2025, the number of graduates had reached 498. In 2025 alone, 31 participants from countries including Ghana, Mexico, Vietnam, and the Philippines took part.
The competition rate of 18 to 1 shows why the program matters.
Enrollment is limited to around 30 participants each year. Yet 416 applicants applied in 2025. The 18-to-1 competition ratio is evidence of the program’s standing in the international community.
The reason lies in the structure of the Paris Agreement. The agreement, concluded in 2015, requires all parties, without distinction between developed and developing countries, to transparently report their greenhouse gas reduction efforts every two years. The Enhanced Transparency Framework is that reporting system. The problem is that many developing countries lack the technical capacity even to prepare the reports. If they cannot compile inventories, they will struggle to participate in international reduction targets and will also fall behind in the allocation of climate finance.
The Korean training program focuses precisely on this issue. How to fill out reporting forms, how to apply emission factors, and how to connect sector-by-sector statistics. These are skills that can be used immediately in the field. This is why the number of countries that have produced graduates has reached more than 60.
The instructors are also composed of active experts from international organizations. Specialists dispatched directly from the UNFCCC Secretariat, the IPCC, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) deliver lectures. Experts from Korea’s academia and institutions also participate. The entire course is conducted in English.
The 16th International Greenhouse Gas Experts Training Program will be held for three weeks starting August 31, 2026, at Sejong University in Seoul. It will be conducted in person, and about 30 participants are expected to be selected.
“This memorandum renewal is an international recognition of the achievements of 15 years of cooperation in greenhouse gas education for developing countries,” said Choi Min-ji, head of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea. “As greenhouse gas accounting is the starting point of responding to the climate crisis, we will continue to actively support the training program so that it can provide practical help to developing countries.”
The timing of the memorandum renewal is also notable. Yeosu is currently hosting the 3rd UNFCCC Climate Week from April 20 to 25. It is a meeting where governments, international organizations, and civil society from around the world gather to move the climate action tasks agreed at COP into the implementation stage. Aligning the renewal of cooperation on education with this event can be read as a symbolic moment showing that climate action has moved beyond declarations and into execution.
The starting point of climate response is an accurate accounting of emissions. The more countries know what needs to be reduced and by how much, the more realistic international reduction targets become. Korea’s educational asset, built over 15 years, will take on that role for another five years.