The election of left-leaning former labor activist Lee Jae-myung as South Korean president Tuesday is just the latest example of how much of the world is moving in the opposite direction to the US.
In common with recent elections in Canada and Australia, it’s a rebuke of leaders on the right who’ve fought a rearguard action against the transition to renewables. Lee has promised to phase out coal, limit use of natural gas and accelerate the building of wind and solar. His position on nuclear power, a major success story that was strongly supported by his impeached predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, remains ambiguous.
However, resolving energy policy in South Korea won’t be easy. Years of inertia and obstruction of the transition have left the country with a system that’s plagued with high costs and has the lowest renewable penetration among developed economies.
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