Gwangmyeong Citizens Propose 'Apartment Neighborhood Communities' as Carbon Neutrality Practitioners

On the 23rd, at the Gwangmyeong City Hall main conference room, during the "3rd Gwangmyeong City Climate Conference (Town Hall COP)" held as part of the "2026 Gwangmyeong Climate Week," Gwangmyeong citizens proposed creating a civic participation environment centered on apartment neighborhood communities to lower the threshold for practicing carbon neutrality.

The Climate Conference is a citizen-participatory climate cooperation model in which citizens review policy implementation status and jointly discuss implementation directions by applying the operational method of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) to climate policy review. Gwangmyeong City became the first in Korea to introduce this model in 2024.

On this day, citizens proposed the formation of apartment neighborhood communities as a space where people can easily continue practicing carbon neutrality in their daily lives, taking into account that while people recognize the necessity of carbon neutrality, they face various difficulties.

Specifically, these include energy inspection and conservation campaigns for apartment common facilities, expansion of public bicycles near apartments, operation of citizen resource circulation repair and maintenance schools, installation of shared refrigerators, and creation of vegetable gardens and green spaces.

Gwangmyeong Mayor Park Seung-won stated, "Going forward, I will strengthen climate cooperation with citizens so that citizen opinions lead not only to discussions but also to actual policy changes and changes in daily life."

At the conference, Vice Mayor Choi Hye-min of Gwangmyeong presented the progress of Gwangmyeong's carbon neutrality initiatives, and experts and citizens together discussed the achievements and challenges of the policy.

The subsequent discussion was moderated by Ko Jae-gyeong, chairperson of the Gwangmyeong City Climate Crisis Response Committee. Vice Mayor Choi Hye-min, Member Park Jeong-yeon of the National Climate Crisis Response Committee, Member Hong Su-yeol of the Gwangmyeong City Climate Crisis Response Committee, and citizen representatives participated to discuss the achievements and challenges of carbon neutrality policies.