Vietnam shows strong political commitment to maximising green energy transition

Green transition in the energy sector is a key trend in the world and is one of Vietnam’s current top priorities. Vietnam is among countries with great potential to invest in new renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and ocean wave power, and biogas.

According to experts, to take advantage of its inherent potential, Vietnam needs to have incentive policies to expand the renewable energy market, promote and deploy new technologies, provide appropriate opportunities as well as encouraging the use of renewable energy in all important areas.

The world today still depends mainly on traditional energy such as oil, coal, and natural gas. However, these sources are gradually running out. According to scientists' calculations, they can only last 70 to 100 years.

Dr. Chu Duc Hoang, Chief of the Office of the National Technology Innovation Fund under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said traditional energy not only causes serious environmental pollution from greenhouses emissions that produce harmful effects to water and soil, but are also gradually depleting, posing a threat to stable energy supply in the future.

Vietnam’s energy industry has developed strongly in recent years, in all stages of exploration, exploitation, production, transmission, distribution and import and export of energy. However, the scale and efficiency of the energy industry are still low.

In particular, Vietnam's energy demand is also increasing rapidly with about 10% a year during 2001-2010, about 7% a year in the period from 2011 to present. Electricity demand climbed by 13% a year during the 2001-2010 and nearly 10% a year from 2011 to present.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector accounted for about 63% of Vietnam's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 and about 67.7% in 2020. Emissions are forecast to make up about 73.1% and 79.7% in 2030 and 2050 respectively according to the normal scenario.

The 26th Conference of the Parties participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) with strong political commitments of many countries, including Vietnam, to reduce greenhouse gases shows the trend. Green energy production and consumption as well as energy transition are becoming an urgent and important issue in sustainable development strategies, associated with environmental protection of countries around the world.

Committing to achieving the goal of complete decarbonisation by mid-century makes Vietnam an even more attractive destination for foreign corporations to invest in renewable energy infrastructure, including offshore wind power projects. With a coastline of more than 3,200 km, shallow water depth and high, stable wind speed, Vietnam fully meets the important prerequisites necessary to develop reliable offshore wind power projects.

Dr. Chu Duc Hoang said that facing the challenge of climate change and the risk of energy depletion, the transition to green energy is not just an option but an urgent need. In this transition, technology plays a key role. Tech will create efficient solutions for capturing and storing energy to optimising its use in both production and daily consumption. Therefore, technological innovation is an inevitable trend for countries, corporations, and businesses to successfully convert from traditional energy to clean energy.