Vietnam

About

Vietnam officially joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in 2017 but its longstanding relationship with the CCAC and commitment to combatting short-lived climate pollutants, dates back to 2014.

In the intervening years, Vietnam has become a global leader in greening its agricultural sector, an important move given that agriculture is responsible for a third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock and rice production are the primary sources of emissions, which is why Vietnam is working with the CCAC’s Solution Centre to include agricultural emissions reductions into their Nationally Determined Contributions, or their commitment to mitigate climate change. They are also working with the CCAC’s Agriculture Initiative to apply alternative wetting and drying techniques to rice farming which has the potential to reduce emissions by a third.

Vietnam was one of the first nations to draw up an action plan to implement the Paris Agreement. The country is also a signatory to the Coalition’s “Bonn Communique” which sprung out of the Coalition’s High-Level Assembly (HLA), held on the margins of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of 2017, COP23 in Bonn. Vietnam and the other signatories voluntarily committed to short-lived climate pollutant reductions through livestock as a result of production and manure management, methane reductions from paddy rice, and alternatives to open burning through phased-in controls and incentives for farmers. This work sends a global message that mitigating emissions doesn’t have to inhibit food production, if done correctly, economic development and climate mitigation can go hand in hand.

In 2020, Vietnam introduced legislation to advance its greenhouse gas reduction goals as per the Paris Agreement. The legislation included a draft Law on Environmental Protection in addition to a lower-level decree from the Environment Ministry. This draft law included provision for waste management, a ban on chemicals that destroy the ozone, and management of surrounding environment quality for local air quality management planning.

Vietnam is also one of the country’s where the CCAC has carried out a hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) inventory, to help understand national consumption and how to best begin implementing the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The CCAC also supported Vietnam in producing an analysis and evaluation of the country’s freight sector and the actions needed to build a green freight sector.

The CCAC further supported Vietnam in implementing its groundbreaking Animal Husbandry Law, which went into effect in January 2019 to help reduce methane emissions in the livestock sector as per the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). With the help of CCAC’s Solutions Center, Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development carried out a survey in every province in Vietnam to calculate the emissions of every part of livestock production and evaluate the mitigation potential of various interventions. As a result of this support, manure treatment and biogas were included as two of the top priority measures in their NDCs for reducing methane from livestock.

From food security to air pollution, SLCP mitigation has a variety of benefits. Like the CCAC’s work around the world, Vietnam is getting the data it needs to make smart, cost-effective mitigation choices that don’t just benefit the planet but improve the lives of every citizen.

Read below for more examples of Vietnam's work. 

Other activities

Agriculture

• The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) revision process will serve as input to Vietnam's Strategic Development Orientation for Agriculture and Rural development for the 2021-2030 period of the vision 2045. The agricultural aspects of the NDC revision process will involve short-lived climate pollutant mitigation in various sub-sectors.
• In 2017, Vietnam's Prime Minister issued the National Action Plan to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Action Plan identified 17 sustainable development goals of Vietnam by 2030 and the 13th goal is to take timely and efficient actions to respond to climate change and natural disasters. The national action plan also refers to targets that include reducing adverse environmental impacts on people in urban areas and strengthening the management of air quality, urban waste, and other sources of waste.
• In 2016, the government ratified the Paris Agreement and assigned the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate the relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to implement and widely disseminate the goals of the Paris Agreement.
• In 2016, as part of Vietnam’s action plan to implement the Paris Agreement, the government included in the National Development Agenda alternate wetting and drying as one of the agriculture mitigation measures to tackle emissions from the rice sector. It also included the intention to develop an Animal Husbandry Law to tackle emissions from livestock.
• The NDC implementation plan targets water-saving technologies including alternate wetting and drying on 500,000-1,200,000 hectares of rice land which has the potential to reduce an impressive 23-65 percent of agriculture emissions. Furthermore, the plan includes measures to reduce methane from livestock manure, including biogas, composting, and producing organic fertilizers. The PA Implementation Plan covers the contents of the NDC and is divided into two periods: 2016-2020 and 2021-2030
• In 2017, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development promulgated the Green Growth Action Plan of Agriculture and Rural Development sector up to 2020 which aims to achieve a 20 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and rural development sector by 2020.
• In 2016, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the Action Plan to Respond to Climate Change of Agriculture and Rural Development sector for the period of 2016-2020 with a vision to 2050. This was developed based on the positive results of the previous Action Plan to Respond to Climate Change in agriculture and rural development sector (2011-2015) to restructure all projects and schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and rural development.
• In 2015, Vietnam’s Prime Minister approved the National Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory System with the goal of making “biennial GHG inventories and develop national climate change reports and to submit them to the UNFCCC.”
• In 2015, Vietnam sent the UNFCCC Secretariat Vietnam's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). As its contribution to fulfilling the targets, Vietnam has committed to cutting 8-25% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Climate Finance

• In 2020, the World Bank announced the approval of $84.4 million in international development assistance credit to support multi-sectoral policy reforms by the Government of Vietnam to promote climate-resilient landscapes and green transport and energy systems. The Climate Change and Green Growth Development Policy Financing aims to consolidate and expand on the government’s Support Program to Respond to Climate Change 2016-2020.  This includes supporting policies that should lead to increased protection of water sources, application of water-saving practices over larger areas of farmland, additional reductions in vehicle emissions, and further scaling up of renewable energy.
• As of 2020, Vietnam has received Green Climate Fund funding of $146.0 million for 3 projects and an additional $2 million for readiness activities. One project involves strengthening the resilience of smallholder agriculture to climate change-induced water insecurity and another involves scaling up energy efficiency for industrial enterprises, and the third involves improving coastal community resilience to the effects of climate change.
• In 2018, Vietnam was awarded funding of €10.3 million from Germany for a project to implement the Paris Agreement that supports the Vietnamese government in creating the framework conditions for the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Paris Agreement. The focus is on advising the Ministry of Environment on the development of the NDCs and establishing an institutional framework for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
• In 2017, the GCF and Vietnam signed letters of agreement approving nearly $300,000 in Green Climate Fund readiness funding to support the country's green growth and climate action strategies.

Energy Efficiency

• In 2017, legislation was passed mandating energy labelling and minimum energy efficiency standards with a roadmap to their implementation (Decision No. 04/2017/QD-TTg).
• In 2017, the Prime Minister promulgating the list of major energy users in 2016 (Decision No. 1305/QD-TTg).
• In 2017, the Minister of Construction promulgated the Green Growth Action Plan of Construction sector by 2020 with a vision to 2030 (Decision No. 419/QD-BXD). This made the tasks and objectives of the construction industry concrete, setting up an action plan that includes urban planning adjustment, technical infrastructure improvement, construction technology and techniques reform, development of green buildings and green building materials, and energy efficiency and saving in the construction sector.

Energy

• In 2015, a renewable energy strategy was passed to be implemented by 2030 and to carry the country through to 2050 (Decision No. 2068/QD-TTg). One of its objectives is to develop and utilize renewable energy sources to contribute to a sustainable environment and a green economy.
• In 2014, a support mechanism was passed (Decision No. 24/2014/QD-TTg) for developing biomass power projects in Vietnam.

Waste

• In 2018, the Prime Minister approved Decision No. 491/QD-TTg, adjusting the national strategy for general management of solid waste to 2025 with vision towards 2050. One objective is to apply advanced and environmentally friendly solid waste treatment technologies that can be used for solid waste treatment, energy recovery, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
• In 2014, the Prime Minister made Decision No. 31/2014/QD-TTg to support power generation projects converting solid waste into energy.

Air Quality

• Vietnam drafted a National Action Plan on Air Quality Management (2020-2025) which includes a 20 percent reduction target of air pollutants, including particulate matter
• In 2019, Can Tho joined BreatheLife, continuing work to implement their Clean Air Action Plan prioritizing major sources of emissions, transportation and industry to meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines.

Transportation
  

• In 2016, Decision No. 1456/QD-BGTVT of the Minister of Transport promulgated the Action Plan to respond to climate change and green growth of the Ministry of Transport for 2016-2020. This will work towards a transportation sector that is uniform, sustainable, environmentally-friendly, and low-emissions.
• As of 2020, Euro 4 standards are in place for gasoline vehicles in Vietnam, and Euro IV standards for diesel vehicles since 2018. Euro 5 standards come into effect in 2022.