[KVOLUTION]

Shift of Focus Needs Persistent Practicing to Succeed

Faced with rebounding oil prices worldwide, the government has rightly shifted its energy policy focus from supply to demand management.

A good example is its decision to let electricity prices move more freely by reflecting changes in fuel prices. The present system that regulates power rates regardless of oil or coal price hikes is absurd, as losses at the state utility company had to be filled by taxpayers' money anyway. We hope the new policy will differentiate benefits for consumers saving energy from those who are not.

To ratchet up fuel efficiency for vehicles appears rather long overdue, given the global trends in auto manufacturing, but late should be better than never in this case, too. What matters, as always, is the ``efficiency of subsidies" by correctly targeting petrol-saving models instead of cars from companies with better lobbying power.

President Lee Myung-bak was to the point when he said, ``Conservation can be the most effective energy resources,'' calling for the need to make all new buildings fuel-economizing ones and to improve the efficiency of the existing ones. As the President has stressed recently, the time has long past for Koreans to drive less and bike more, as well as live in hotter homes and offices in summer and colder ones in winter.

Saving energy would of course enable this resource-scare country to reduce its dependency on oil producers and help the recession-hit economy to better tide over this crisis. The economy may soon prove to be a secondary reason for conserving energy, though, if the nation's rapidly changing climate from a moderate to a subtropical one is any guide.

As usual, however, at stake is how persistently Seoul will be able to push ahead with the new policy instead of returning to the previous ``stop-and-go'' pattern, in which the nation ceased and resumed conservation according to the wild gyration of crude oil prices. Energy saving will no longer be an option but an obligation ― for good ― especially if Korea is to be treated as a responsible member of the international community in this era of global warming. Again, Japan, which has stuck to fuel efficiency regardless of global energy prices through various conservation measures, offers a good contrast with Korea's fickleness.

The same can be said of the supply of energy. No one disputes the need for the development of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, but these require lots of financial resources and will take a long period to realize. So success will depend on whether successive Korean governments can maintain their predecessors' policies, like Germany has. Given the poor teamwork even within the same administration, however, such expectations appear too high for now.

Yet, it's a promising sign that the government started to sell this unpopular policy to people with corresponding carrots and sticks. One will need patience and endurance to see these bear fruit, but it's a necessary start.