HÀ NỘI — One hundred and forty five greenhouse gas mitigation options have been proposed following a collaboration project with Japanese experts on supporting Việt Nam’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

A workshop on low carbon technology assessment, co-hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MONRE) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Việt Nam, was held in Hà Nội yesterday.

It reported the outcome of the assessment of low-carbon technologies to support the planning and implementation of Việt Nam’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action, carried out by Vietnamese ministries and sectors in collaboration with a team of Japanese experts in the past year.

It also provided inputs from line ministries for further improvement and stimulation of greenhouse gas mitigation actions in Việt Nam, with an orientation towards completing the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the Paris agreement on climate change for its first international assessment in 2023.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr Lương Quang Huy, chief technical advisor of the project, said the project had come up with 145 greenhouse gas mitigation options in five areas, including energy/transport, agriculture, land use and land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), as well as waste and fluorinated gases.

Some of the options involve the use of renewable energy, high efficiency air ventilation systems, high efficiency transformers and the semi-anaerobic landfill operation method.

“These are thrice as many options compared to our 2015 INDCs,” he said.

The INDCs are a set of post-2020 climate actions, outlined by every country that participated in the 21^st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Paris in December 2015.

Việt Nam’s INDCs include 45 greenhouse gas mitigation options aimed at reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions by eight per cent by 2030 compared with the Business as Usual scenario, which could be increased to up to 25 per cent with international support.

The lack of legal documents that regulate the responsibilities of ministries, sectors and provinces in greenhouse gas mitigation calls for a decree on the roadmap and means of greenhouse mitigation, according to Dr Huy.

The decree will be based on the quantified mitigation targets at project, provincial and national levels, the overall mitigation monitoring and assessment process and updates of the INDCs.

MONRE was preparing to propose a draft decree to the Government, Nguyễn Văn Tuệ, director of MONRE’s Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change, said.

“It will be a legal tool with which we can actualise the INDC objectives,” he said.

“Localities in Việt Nam have made efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only on a voluntary basis,” he added. “The decree will make reducing greenhouse gas emissions compulsory, and requires ministries and sectors to assume responsibilities for making it happen.”

Discussing the greenhouse gas mitigation options at the conference, representatives from industrial enterprises said they appreciated the utilisation of low-carbon technologies. However, they also proposed that more information be provided on how the private sector will benefit from those options, and on the State’s incentives and financial support for enterprises to acquire the technologies. — VNS