by “I’m swamped, but I get energy from being able to do my favorite climate movement and ‘virtue’ together.”
Lee Da-yeon (21), a K-Pop for Planet activist recently included in the BBC’s ‘100 Women of the Year’ list, said this in a video interview on the 28th. The ‘100 Women of the Year, which the BBC has selected every year since 2013, names women who have performed meaningful activities worldwide that year.
This year, Michelle Obama, the spouse of former President Obama and a campaigner to ensure education for young women worldwide, was selected along with Lee and others. Last year, Korea’s top 100 women included Park Ji-hyun, former chair of the Democratic Party’s Emergency Response Committee, and CJ Group Vice Chairman Mi-kyung Lee. The BBC introduced Lee as “uniting K-pop fans worldwide to fight the climate crisis.”
Mr. Lee is a second-year student at the Department of International Sociology at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan and is also involved in environmental activism on the online platform K-Pop for Planet. The main task is to join K-pop fans in demanding that entertainment agencies that singers belong to or large corporations that appoint singers as promotional ambassadors stop destroying the environment.
Recently, after Hyundai Motor Company, which features the group BTS, signed a business agreement with an Indonesian company that plans to build a coal power plant, they are demanding that Hyundai Motor Company cancel the deal. More than 11,000 people participated in the petition aimed at 10,000 people. If there is no response to online requests, K-Pop Planet goes directly to the company and performs to raise awareness of the problem.
Mr. Lee, active in the environmental group Youth Climate Action, began an environmental movement targeting K-pop fans in earnest in 2021 at the suggestion of Nurul Sarifa (24), an Indonesian K-pop fan and climate activist. Currently, eight activists are encouraging K-pop fans to participate online.
Mr. Lee said, “We are focusing on running the campaign in a fun way that young K-pop fans can relate to so that anyone can easily participate.” He added, “We regularly recruit ambassadors to help them spread the word about the campaign to those around them. Recently, we have launched campaigns in Thailand, Spain, and the United States. “15 ambassadors of various nationalities participated in the activity,” he said.
As a result of K-Pop for Planet’s activities, changes are also seen in related industries. Mr. Lee said, “JYP Entertainment was the first entertainment agency to achieve Korean RE100. “YG Entertainment measured carbon emissions for the first time during a recent Blackpink concert,” he said. “The four major entertainment companies are also publishing ESG reports.” We also received a promise from Kakao Entertainment, which operates the large music platform Melon, to “change our data centers to use carbon-free energy to operate them.”
However, it was said that agencies randomly attach various types of photo cards to each album to encourage fans who want to collect photo cards to purchase excessive albums, which leads to a disproportionate increase in waste, which has stayed the same.
Lee said that this year’s selection as Woman of the Year “recognizes the social participation of K-pop fans” and added, “As the K-pop industry expands its influence around the world, fans are also a positive influence, just as the BTS fandom ‘ARMY’ gave a voice to the black human rights movement.” “It is showing,” he said. He said, “I received the award because I was exposed to it a lot during my activities, but it is an achievement that K-Pop for Planet and the K-pop fans who participated in the campaign achieved together.” He added, “I want to continue to have fun responding to the climate crisis in the future.”
