Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)
What do our scores mean?
The organizational score represents the degree to which the organization influencing climate policy and legislation. Corporations also have relationship scores reflecting their links with influencers like trade associations. Both are combined to place the corporation in a performance band. Full details can be found here.
Engagement Intensity
The engagement intensity (EI) is a metric of the extent to which the company is engaging on climate change policy matters, whether positively or negatively. It is a number from 0 (no engagement at all) to 100 (full engagement on all queries/data points). Clearly energy companies are more affected by climate regulations and will have a higher EI than, for example retailers. So an organization’s score should be looked at in conjunction with this metric to gauge the amount of evidence we are using in each case as a basis for scoring. On our scale, an EI of more than 35 indicates a relatively large amount of climate policy engagement.
Relationship Score, December 2020
A new batch of industry associations has been uploaded onto the InfluenceMap system and the relationship scores recalculated accordingly.
Updated terminology, February 2021
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
- Details of Organization Score
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What do the 0,1,2 and NSs, NAs mean?
Each cell in the organization's matrix presents a chance for us to assess each data source against our column of climate change policy queries. We score from -2 to 2, with negative scores representing evidence of obstructive influence. "NA" means "not applicable" and "NS" means "not scored" - that is we did not find any evidence either way. In both cases, the cell's weighting is re-distributed over others. Red and blue cells represent highly interesting negative or positive influence respectively. Full details can be found here.
- Details of Relationship Score
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What is the Relationship Score
A corporation, as well as its organizational score will have a relationship score. It is computed by aggregating the organizational scores of the Influencers (trade bodies etc.) it has relationships with, weighted by both the strength of these relationships and the relative importance of the Influencers towards climate change policy. Full details can be found here.
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QUERIES
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DATA SOURCES | |||||||
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Main Web Site
The main organizational Web site of the company and its direct links to major affiliates and attached documents. |
Social Media
We search other media and sites funded or controlled by the organization, such as social media (Twitter, Facebook) and direct advertising campaigns of the organization. |
CDP Responses
We assess and score responses to two questions from CDP's climate change information request (12.3 a & 12.3c) related to political influence questions (currently these are not numerically scored by the CDP process). |
Legislative Consultations
Comments from the entity being scored on governmental regulatory consultation processes, including those obtained by InfluenceMap through Freedom of Information requests. |
Media Reports
Here we search in a consistent manner (the organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
CEO Messaging
Here we search in a consistent manner (the CEO/Chairman, organization name and relevant query search terms) a set of web sites of representing reputable news or data aggregations. Supported by targeted searches of proprietary databases. |
Financial Disclosures
We search 10-K and 20-F SEC filings where available, and non US equivalents where not. . |
EU Register
Information provided by to the voluntary EU Transparency Register. |
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Communication of Climate Science
Is the organization transparent and clear about its position on climate change science? |
1
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NS | NS | NS | NS |
2
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NS | NA |
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Alignment with IPCC on Climate Action
Is the organization supporting the science-based response to climate change as set out by the IPCC? (the IPCC) |
0
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NS | NA | NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
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Supporting the Need for Regulations
To what extent does the organization express the need for regulatory intervention to resolve the climate crisis? |
1
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NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
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Support of UN Climate Process
Is the organization supporting the UN FCCC process on climate change? |
0
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NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
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NS | NA |
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Transparency on Legislation
Is the organisation transparent about its positions on climate change legislation/policy and its activities to influence it? |
-1
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NA |
1
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NA | NA | NA | NS | NA |
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Carbon Tax
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: carbon tax. |
NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
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Emissions Trading
Is the organisation supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: emissions trading. |
0
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NS |
1
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NS |
-1
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NS | NS | NA |
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Energy and Resource Efficiency
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: energy efficiency policy, standards, and targets |
NS | NS |
1
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NS | NS | NS | NS | NA |
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Renewable Energy
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Renewable energy legislation, targets, subsidies, and other policy |
1
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NS |
2
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NS | NS | NS |
0
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NA |
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Energy Transition & Zero Carbon Technologies
Is the organization supporting an IPCC-aligned transition of the economy away from carbon-emitting technologies, including supporting relevant policy and legislative measures to enable this transition? |
0
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NS | NS | NS |
-2
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1
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NS | NA |
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GHG Emission Regulation
Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: GHG emission standards and targets. Is the organization supporting policy and legislative measures to address climate change: Standards, targets, and other regulatory measures directly targeting Greenhouse Gas emissions |
0
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NS | NS | NS | NS |
1
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0
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NA |
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Disclosure on Relationships
Is the organization transparent about its involvement with industry associations that are influencing climate policy, including the extent to which it is aligned with these groups on climate? |
0
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NS |
-2
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NA | NA | NA | NS | NA |
Open PDF file of Data Source
How to Read our Relationship Score Map
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
Climate Lobbying Overview: Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) appears broadly supportive of climate action and the energy transition, and has engaged positively with various strands of climate policy in South Korea including emissions trading, energy efficiency and renewable energy legislation. However, it is unclear from KEPCO’s top-line messaging and communications on coal if the company is supportive of action on climate change at a scale and pace consistent with the Paris Agreement.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: KEPCO has expressed some support for climate action in its top-line messaging, but lacks detail regarding the level of ambition required on a global scale. In its 2020 Sustainability Report, KEPCO acknowledged the climate crisis and the need to reduce global GHG emissions. However, the company did not appear to take a clear position on the Paris Agreement or the need to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C or 2°C in line with IPCC guidance. In the same report, KEPCO appeared to support the achievement of national policy goals related to climate change.
Engagement with Climate-related Regulations: KEPCO has disclosed limited information on its climate policy positions in its corporate reporting in 2019-20. The company appears to express support for the achievement of South Korea’s federal renewable energy target and GHG target in its 2019 and 2020 Sustainability Reports, respectively.
KEPCO has disclosed further details on its climate policy engagement in its CDP responses. In its 2020 CDP response, KEPCO support for South Korea’s national emissions trading system (ETS), although the company’s CDP responses from 2017-19 show that the company also lobbied for “realistic and effective” emission allocations under the ETS. KEPCO’s 2020 CDP response also discloses the company’s support for several national climate policies in South Korea including Energy Efficiency Resource Standards, stronger energy efficiency policies for new large-scale buildings, and the government’s “Renewable 3020” policy to produce 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.
Positioning on Energy Transition: In 2020, KEPCO President and CEO, Jong-Kap Kim, stated the company’s commitment to play a leading role in the energy transition. KEPCO’s 2020 Sustainability Report further stated support for the decarbonization of the electric power industry and the development of green hydrogen production. On its corporate website, accessed in February 2021, the company also supported the role of renewable energy to meet national policy targets for the energy transition in South Korea.
In 2018, KEPCO were quoted in several media reports from Australia and the Philippines emphasizing the importance of coal to energy security in South Korea in support of new coal projects. However, in its 2020 Sustainability Report, the company appears to support a reduction of coal-fired power generation in the energy mix, although with some ambiguity around the pace and extent of this transition.
Industry Association Governance: KEPCO has disclosed a list of its memberships to industry associations, but with no further details of the company's role within each organization, nor its influence over their climate change policy positions. KEPCO has not published a review of its industry associations’ alignment on climate change policy.