Lawmakers call for climate and environment bureau to be placed at eastern campus

Lawmakers representing the eastern region of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Council hold a press conference Wednesday. [Provided by the city council]
Lawmakers representing the eastern region of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Council hold a press conference Wednesday. [Provided by the city council]

Calls that the eastern region is being shortchanged are growing in Yeosu, Suncheon and Gwangyang after the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City announced a proposed reorganization into a structure of four offices, eight bureaus and 27 departments.

Lawmakers from the eastern region of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Council held a press conference Wednesday at the eastern campus in Haeryong-myeon, Suncheon, criticizing the plan. "The reorganization proposal places a vice mayor for industry and economy along with industrial and investment functions at the eastern campus, which at first glance appears to take the eastern region into account," they said. "But a closer look reveals that three of the four Grade 1 senior executive offices go to the Gwangju campus and one to the Muan campus — leaving the eastern campus in Suncheon with zero."

The lawmakers argued that the plan gives the eastern campus a vice mayor in name only, while stripping it of the top-tier administrative offices needed to carry out that role and back it with budget and policy. They called it a powerless vice mayorship and a form of governance that misleads eastern-region residents.

The lawmakers warned that the eastern region of South Jeolla Province, home to the Yeosu and Gwangyang national industrial complexes, is a critical hub for the country's core industries — petrochemicals, steel and secondary batteries — but is facing an unprecedented structural crisis and a shift toward carbon neutrality. "Nurturing future industries is not just a matter for the eastern region," they said. "If the eastern region's industries collapse, the integrated special city's economy and fiscal health will inevitably be shaken."

The lawmakers also called for a climate and environment bureau to be placed at the eastern campus so it can lead the carbon neutrality transition in the industrial sector and spearhead the bid to host COP33 in Yeosu.

The Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City earlier announced the proposed reorganization into a four-office, eight-bureau, 27-department structure for legislative notice, and plans to gather feedback from individual departments through Monday before submitting the plan to the Integrated Special City Council.


parkds@heraldcorp.com