The recent proposal of a 'Special Act on Municipal Integration' in Korea, aimed at consolidating metropolitan areas such as Gwangju and Jeonnam into a single local government, has sparked significant backlash from environmental organizations. They argue that this act compromises the integrity of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process by transferring evaluation powers from the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment to local governments. The Green Union, a notable environmental group, has raised concerns that this shift mirrors structural issues seen in previous special laws applicable to regions like Jeju and Gangwon, where the concentration of development and assessment powers within the same local entity hampers independent and objective environmental evaluations.

The group highlighted that under the new Act, the mayor of the integrated special city would effectively oversee the environmental impact assessments linked to development projects, creating a conflict of interest where approvals might become a form of 'self-approval' by the very officials responsible for proposing these developments. The risks of compromised transparency and accountability have been pronounced, with the Green Union pointing to previous cases in Gangwon Province, particularly concerning developments in Seoraksan National Park, as evidence of these systemic failures in the EIA process.

In a bid to maintain the integrity of EIAs, the Green Union has called for a halt to the transfer of EIA authority to local governments. They suggest the introduction of a third-party system where an independent entity would oversee the selection of EIA evaluators, thus severing the dependency between project developers and assessors. They also advocate for greater transparency in the EIA process to ensure public awareness and participation, emphasizing that issues like secrecy in assessments have already overlooked community interests, as seen in the large fountain installation project at Gyeongpo Lake in Gangneung.