Martin Uden

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Tuesday 19 May, 2009

It is customary around the world for Embassies to hold a grand annual event celebrating their national day. So the USA mark 4 July, France 14 July and so on. The United Kingdom celebrates Her Majesty’s Birthday and British diplomatic missions normally mark it in June to coincide with the celebrations in London where the highpoint is the Trooping of the Colour.

In most places and for most Embassies, the Queen’s Birthday Party has been an occasion to invite a wide range of important contacts for a suitably impressive affair. That has also been the practice here and generally we have held a large party on the lawn of the Residence, which anything up to 400 people attend.

This is just what we did last year, but I was not entirely sure it represented the best value for money for the UK taxpayer, nor indeed enabled us to fully welcome and thank our many and varied contacts. Even though 400 is a lot of people, inevitably there were still many important contacts who could not be invited, and with so many people at the party it was tough to do business with those we did invite. So this year, we have decided to go for a smaller affair in early June and to concentrate on the diplomatic corps and Korean foreign policy community – so guests from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, relevant think tanks, and so on. We will try to ensure that our valued contacts from other areas are invited to other events more tailored to them as well. And that there continue to be opportunities for British Businesses and the wider British Community in Korea to enjoy our wonderful Residence and gardens.

But another factor I had in mind was a wish to be sure that events like this are consistent with our approach to climate change. And so this year’s event will – for the first time ever – be carbon neutral. Simply having a smaller event will mean a reduction in the carbon footprint of the event, and so too will holding it at lunchtime on the lawn, so not the same need for air conditioning and lighting that we’d need in the evening indoors. We’ve looked at the catering arrangements to reduce emissions there and, where possible, are using locally produced, in season produce. Of course, the waste from the event will be recycled. We have asked guests not to send floral tributes (quite a big thing in Korea) but instead to make a donation to charity. And we encourage guests to use public transport to travel to and from the event to make a significant saving in carbon emissions. We’re also using a guide from the Korean Ministry of the Environment for more ideas and to calculate what we need to purchase as offsets to make the event carbon neutral overall.

I hope we’ll be able to succeed in this – but still allow ourselves to throw a good party for Her Majesty.