South Korean growers sue state power utility, blaming climate change for crop damage

SEOSAN, South Korea (AP) — Hwang Seong-yeol stood at the edge of a golden field, nervously watching a combine harvester crawling through his rice, churning up mud and stalks. Its steady hum filled the humid autumn air as the grain arrived in a truck waiting at the other end of the muddy rice field.

It was the last day of what Hwang described as one of his toughest seasons in three decades of farming. He and other farmers feel helpless in the face of increasingly erratic weather, which they link to climate change and damage to their crops. This complicated their work and sowed uncertainty about their future.

Hwang is one of five South Korean farmers who recently sued state-owned Korea Electric Power Corporation and its power-producing subsidiaries, alleging that their reliance on coal and other fossil fuels has accelerated climate change and damaged their crops.

The lawsuit raises the question of whether the role of power companies in climate change and resulting agricultural losses can be quantified. It is the first of its kind in South Korea, said Yeny Kim, a lawyer with the Seoul-based nonprofit Solutions for Our Climate, which is handling the case.

The case underscores the challenges that South Korea, a manufacturing power that industrialized long after Western countries pressured others to abandon fossil fuels, faces in its transition to cleaner energy.

Unstable weather causes ‘agricultural disasters’

Hwang’s fields lie on a reclaimed coastal plain along South Korea’s western sea, where glistening streams crisscross rich, dark soil and flocks of migrating geese drift overhead, moving like a giant, living quilt.

A remarkably rainy September and October followed an extremely cold spring that stunted plant growth. Summer flooding caused further damage before a wet fall brought fungal diseases.

Hwang would have preferred to harvest in drier weather, but he had to do so sooner because the incessant rains pushed the rice stalks into the ground, causing the ripe grains to germinate. This late October day was only the second dry day after 18 consecutive days of rain.

“It’s really troubling: We know how much rice we should normally get from 30,000 pyeong (25 acres) of land, but the yield is steadily declining every year,” said Hwang, who expects this year’s harvest to be 20 to 25 percent lower than normal.

“We started to wonder why it’s always farmers, who have done nothing wrong, who end up bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Shouldn’t we demand something from those who are actually causing it?”

Farmers are “inherently vulnerable” to climate change, said Kim, the lawyer.

In an annual climate report released in April, the South Korean government detailed how a year of extreme weather events in 2024, the country’s hottest year on record, triggered a series of “agricultural disasters” of heavy summer rains that destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of cropland, followed by weeks of intense heat that destroyed even more crops, mainly rice.

Lawyer says KEPCO Group is responsible for 0.4% of global climate damage

Kim and his colleagues decided to file the lawsuit, which represents plaintiffs from across South Korea, after speaking with Hwang and others at farmers’ markets.

They say KEPCO, which has a monopoly on electricity transmission and owns all of its subsidiaries, should be held partly responsible for the destabilized weather, citing what they see as excessive carbon emissions and a delay in the transition to renewable energy.

From 2011 to 2022, companies produced about 30% of South Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions and about 0.4% of global emissions, according to Kim’s analysis of publicly available data.

“Therefore, they should also bear 0.4 percent of the responsibility for farmers’ losses,” Kim said.

The lawsuit seeks initial damages of 5 million won ($3,400) per customer, an amount subject to adjustment as the case progresses. The plaintiffs are also symbolically demanding 2,035 won ($1.4) each to urge the government to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2035, ahead of its 2040 target.

Renewables made up just 10.5% of the national energy mix in 2024, and KEPCO’s five subsidiaries relied on coal for more than 71% of the electricity they generated that year, according to government data.

KEPCO told The Associated Press that it views reducing carbon emissions as a key responsibility, citing its goal of reducing emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels. But it declined to comment further on the lawsuit, saying it “cannot share information that could influence the verdict.”

Experts say the growing debt, now at more than 200 trillion won ($137 billion), accumulated over decades of government policies aimed at keeping electricity rates low for households and industries, limits the utility’s ability to expand and modernize the power grid or invest in renewable energy.

Uncertain impact of a largely symbolic trial

Yun Sun-Jin, a professor at Seoul National University, said the lawsuit had symbolic value, but questioned whether the responsibility could fall solely on KEPCO, given that everyone benefits from its cheap electricity.

It would be difficult to prove that the utility directly caused agricultural losses, when climate change is a “global problem”, she said.

This calls attention to the need for South Korea to adopt a more efficient approach to renewable energy, Yun said, including deregulating investments in solar energy, expanding sources such as offshore wind power and ending KEPCO’s monopoly on electricity transmission to encourage other competitors with diverse technologies.

South Korea is expected to reach its 32.95 percent renewable energy target by around 2038, much slower than the 33.49 percent average in 2023 among developed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economies, according to the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Some experts, including Yun, warn that South Korea’s slow transition to renewable energy could hamper its ambitions for advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence, as its tech giants face global pressure to run on clean energy.

“Climate change and carbon neutrality are not just environmental concerns: they are economic issues, which ultimately concern jobs and our survival,” Yun said.

Mandarins and rice: a shared threat

The impact of extreme weather conditions resulting from climate change is considerable in South Korea.

Farmers now face higher costs and must use more labor to produce the same or lower yields.

Ma Yong-un, an apple grower in the southeastern city of Hamyang, said he is using more pesticides as pests and diseases become harder to control due to prolonged heat and humidity. The apples that thrived in cooler weather in his father’s day are less plentiful and less flavorful, he said.

From tangerine growers on Jeju Island to strawberry growers in Sancheong in the southeast, farmers are trying to find ways to survive.

For the first time since he started farming in 2011, Ma coated all the fruit on his 2,200 trees with a mixture of copper sulfate and lime to prevent fungal infections and skin damage from intense sunlight.

He started thinking seriously about climate change in 2018, when a heavy snowstorm in April damaged flower buds, resulting in one of his worst harvests. Farming becomes more and more difficult every year and he constantly wonders how long he can continue.

“I think about it every day,” said Ma, who is raising two teenagers with his wife. “The biggest concern is my children.”