Hyundai Launches Kyoto Task Force

29 March 2005
Immediate Release

Hyundai Launches Kyoto Task Force

Hyundai has launched a task force to "systematically" cope with the world's most ambitious environmental agreement as the Kyoto Protocol l comes into force this month.

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Caption: Hyundai’s new hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the Tucson FCEV – just one of its eco-friendly vehicles in development.

The task force will carry out a broad range of research and development to increase energy efficiency in its plants, expand production of eco-friendly vehicles and formulate a set of measures in response to the Kyoto climate pact, Hyundai Motor said in a statement.

"Hyundai Motor hopes to become an environmentally, economically and socially responsible company with the launch of the Kyoto Protocol task force," said Chung In-mo, head of the carmaker's environmental management strategy team.

Despite widespread pessimism about the effectiveness of the environmental agreement prompted by a boycott by the United States, which produces about 30 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming, the Kyoto Protocol is poised to become effective about eight years after the 1997 negotiations.

Among 141 signatories to the treaty, 39 countries, including Japan and Western European nations, will be required to reduce their greenhouse gas output by an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012, as a first step.

South Korea is not one of the 39 countries affected by the first-stage requirement, but the treaty is expected to go into force here from 2013.

As part of its efforts toward eco-friendly vehicles, Hyundai Motor said it will continue developing hybrid vehicles, which run on an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, fuel cell cars and next-generation diesel vehicles.

Hyundai said it has already spent more than 100 billion won to make hybrid cars, with commercial sales to begin from late next year.

ENDS

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