Vietnam HFC Inventory

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the country’s designated climate change and MP focal point, became more concerned about HFC use in Viet Nam and how it relates to its climate mitigation goals in 2014 given the discussions not only in the MP community but through the international climate change dialogue.  In order to better understand the current and future role of HFCs as well as other HCFC alternatives in its economy, particularly given its recent HCFC phase-out commitments in the challenging AC and commercial refrigeration sectors, and in anticipation of the Kigali Amendment, MONRE requested funding from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), to conduct a national inventory of HFCs consumed.  Subsequently, the 26th Meeting of the Parties took a decision instructing the Executive Committee of the MLF to finance surveys on alternatives to ODS.  In November 2015, the Executive Committee approved additional funding for Viet Nam to expand the scope of the planned HFC inventory to include other ODS alternatives. 

The main objectives of the HFC inventory alone were to:

• Develop a national inventory of HFCs that are imported, used and banked in Viet Nam;
• Estimate current and projected levels of HFC use;
• Report on the HFC distribution by sector and subsector;
• Calculate equivalent emissions of CO2.

The overall survey work (including other ODS alternatives) was undertaken between May 2016 and February 2017 by the Viet Nam Energy and Environment Consultancy Joint Stock Company (VNEEC), with technical guidance and supervision provided by the National Ozone Unit (NOU) of MONRE.  The data collected was used to estimate current and projected levels of use of HFCs and other HCFC alternatives (in relation to HCFC growth projection) and emissions. As HFCs are currently not controlled and bulk import is not tracked, the survey work included review of the current institutional, regulatory and policy framework controlling ODS, GHGs and other air pollutants to facilitate, along with the survey process itself, identification of a national level approach to document and monitor HFC flows and uses in the future. 

In addition, by reviewing Viet Nam’s climate policy and related national regulatory framework in conjunction with HFCs, the report aimed to more clearly show the linkages between the major international conventions on ozone and climate towards maximizing impacts and co-benefits in future implementation. Under the UNFCCC, Viet Nam has signed and ratified the Paris Agreement and has already set in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) the target of GHG emission reduction by 8% by 2030 compared to the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, solely with domestic resources, by 25% with international support.  Although HFCs do not yet directly figure in this NDC, there is bilateral support on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to assess the potential for mitigation by addressing low carbon technology and fluorocarbon gases as well as various support to the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector on energy efficiency improvement in relation to the refrigerant replacement.