Lee So-young, nominee for Minister of SMEs and Startups, faced National Assembly confirmation-hearing scrutiny over her background as a climate lawyer, the regulatory impact of climate policy on small businesses and her ties to Climate Solutions, an environmental group she co-founded in 2017. People Power Party lawmakers also questioned whether she advanced the group’s agenda through parliamentary seminars, audits and legislation after entering the Assembly in 2020. Lee said climate policy should be treated as an industrial and trade strategy, while emphasizing South Korea’s carbon-neutrality goal and the interests of future generations. Lawmakers highlighted the government’s target of cutting net greenhouse-gas emissions by 53% to 61%, as well as Climate Solutions’ growth from 1.8 million Korean won in donations in 2017 to 17.8 billion won in its current scale. Lee said she resigned as a director in January 2020 and had no direct role in the group’s subsequent operations or donations.