"It should be ambitious and credible," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his special speech at the Asia leadership conference held in Seoul last May

Here "it" means "Korean greenhouse gas reduction plan" known as INDC or the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, which is most critical element for the successful launch of the Post 2020 New Climate Regime. And the historical final negotiation for that will be done at the COP 21 (21st Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

He said so in front of many global leaders including the President Park Geun-hye while publicly recognizing Korean efforts for Green Growth initiated by the previous government.

Then, why did he point out "ambitious and credible"? The word "ambitious" is understandable.

Because wherever he goes, he has been emphasizing the importance of the degree of ambition for cutting emissions to keep this hot planet under control. And usual U.N. jargon for this is "fair and ambitious" meaning every country should do its due part reflecting respective capability.

Then again, why did he choose rather the exceptional word "credible" in his home country event?

A few weeks later after his speech, Korean government revealed four scenarios for 2030 greenhouse reduction target, all of which fell short of the 2020 target that was set-up in 2009 by the preceding one.

This "back sliding" was done without due public participation; only a one time hearing so far. In particular, information about the recent years' emission trajectory was never shared with the public. The trajectory is indicating so-called "decoupling phenomenon" between economic growth rate and emission growth rate. For example, in the year 2014, the authority estimated that absolute amount of emission decreased by 0.6 percent while the economy grew by 3 percent. There might be various factors for this to happen and it is too early to tell whether Korea has reached its emission peak, I admit. The bottom line is that this kind of decoupling happened for the first time in Korean industrial history and can be possibly translated as a beginning of a new change, the Green Growth Initiative has long dreamt of.

The chief of the related department, it is widely told, threatened to punish informants for this record instead of encouraging it to be shared with the public. I do not wish to be in line with the recent Council on Foreign Relations report on Korea which wrote "The current administration has tended to downplay any issues where "successes" might be associated with the legacy and efforts of the preceding administration. (CFR report on Middle-Power Korea: Contributions to the Global Agenda, June 24)

What I am saying is non-disclosure of such information is simply against the "3.0 government" principle. This administration promised to share government information with the public as much as possible.

What's funny is that, last March, the International Energy Agency already revealed similar findings on flattening global emissions based on each country's statistics including China and Korea as well.

As we know now, the government came up with new reduction plan overriding four scenarios. Let alone the content of the new pledge, the primary deliberative body, Green Growth Committee, was never given a proper role to play as is its legal duty. According to key member of the committee, they received the final plan just one day before the official deliberation process. This is quite contrary to the account of the Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu that the government adopted the new proposal recommended made by the Committee (in his contribution to JoongAng Ilbo on July 7).

Calculating the "Business As Usual" (BAU) for 2030 still remains mysterious. For example, the government projected that the portion of the manufacturing sector's added value in the economy would rise up from 31.1 percent (2012) to 36 percent in the year 2030. I truly want to believe Korea could do such marvelous thing in the fierce competition with emerging countries around the world. Compelling rationale and data should be also shared with the international community if Korea wants to avoid shameful evaluation such as that by Climate Action Tracker, a Western think tank, which downgraded Korea from sufficient to inadequate.

I do not know for sure whether Secretary General Ban foretold this when he mentioned "credible."

Looking at the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome situation, however, it was not information sharing but closure that resulted in distrust and conflict.

It is often said Korea has achieved so many "incredible" things and I have been one of the people to be proud of that. But what good would there be left ― it strikes me on second thoughts ― if these were not based on "Credible Korea" first?

Kim Sang-hyup is a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Green Growth at KAIST and chairman for Our Common Future. He also served as senior secretary for green growth to former President Lee Myung-bak.