Deputy Prime Minister Baek Kyung-hoon, who also serves as minister of science and ICT, and Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan held an “energy policy warm talk” meeting on Jan. 15 at the government complex in Seoul.

The meeting’s name reflects an aim of warm and soft communication, and of creating a sustainable communication channel through online meetings when needed.

At the meeting, the two ministries discussed key policy tasks in future energy, including electricity supply for AI data centres, commercialisation of small modular reactors (SMRs), early realisation of fusion energy and development of carbon-neutral technologies.

Baek said mutual cooperation between the two ministries is essential in energy transition and technological innovation to achieve their shared goal of carbon neutrality. He stressed they should work together so that next-generation energy technologies such as nuclear power and fusion, and climate crisis response technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage, can be used in practice in the field.

Kim said the climate ministry should support demonstration and commercialisation of basic and core technologies developed by the science and ICT ministry that are close to commercialisation, to establish an excellent model of collaboration in technology development in carbon reduction. He said they would also work together to build a power supply foundation so AI data centres can operate stably.

The two ministries decided to operate a quarterly regular policy consultative body. The body plans to share the latest policy trends of the two ministries and build practical cooperation models through in-depth discussions.