Trucost Blog

Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), which generates and distributes most of the electricity in South Korea, is the largest emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions out of the biggest utilities companies globally in Trucost's database.

As such, KEPCO is in a position of significant responsibility, and aims to "respond actively to climate change" and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That being said, the company did not respond to the 2011 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) information request, and declined to participate last year. It has not publicly disclosed GHG emissions data to the CDP since 2009. The majority of its emissions are carbon dioxide from operations including coal combustion, which accounts for about one-third of KEPCO's power generation.

Trucost estimates that in 2010, KEPCO emitted 285 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents, through the direct operations and purchased electricity of its owned and controlled facilities globally. This constitutes a carbon footprint of 8,370 tonnes of CO₂e per million USD of revenue generated by the company.

Chart 1 below shows that 3% of the total direct GHG emissions emitted by the top 1,000 companies globally are from KEPCO's power generation. 

Chart1: 2010 Direct GHG emissions across the top 1,000 companies globally

KEPCO is out of step with the generally good level of carbon reporting among the largest utilities companies globally, with 83% of Trucost's direct GHG emissions data disclosed directly or derived from fuel consumption data (see Chart 2).

Chart 2: 2010 weighted direct GHG emission disclosure by global utilities companies

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