Seoul Metropolitan Council member Lee Min-seok (People Power Party, Mapo District 1) has been elected chair of the Environment and Water Resources Committee for the first half of the 12th Seoul Metropolitan Council.
The council held a plenary session Tuesday and elected standing committee chairs to lead the first half of the 12th term, selecting Lee as Environment and Water Resources Committee chair by vote.
Lee previously served as a Mapo-gu council member in the eighth term and as vice chair of the Housing and Space Committee during the second half of the 11th Seoul Metropolitan Council, building a record of field-oriented legislative work that established his policy and lawmaking credentials. His election as chair marks the start of his full engagement in climate and environmental affairs.
In remarks after his election, Lee thanked his sunbae and fellow council members for entrusting him with the responsibility. "I will closely monitor and support key green and waterfront policies — including the '5-Minute Garden City' initiative and the 'Great Han River Project' — so that Seoul's 10 million citizens can experience them directly in their daily lives," he said.
He also pledged to lead the committee with sound judgment. "Faced with the sweeping challenges of addressing the climate crisis through carbon neutrality and resource circulation, and realizing a clean and safe ecological city, I will bring together the rich insight and expertise of our 13 committee members and work in close bipartisan cooperation to guide the Environment and Water Resources Committee in a rational direction," he said.
The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Environment and Water Resources Committee oversees the Climate and Environment Headquarters, the Garden City Bureau, the Seoul Arisu Headquarters, the Future Han River Headquarters, Seoul Grand Park and the Seoul Energy Corporation — making it one of the council's key standing committees, handling policies and ordinances directly tied to the lives of Seoul citizens, including climate crisis response and the creation and management of parks and green spaces such as Han River parks, along with a budget exceeding 2 trillion won ($1.36 billion).
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