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Aspiration to green the economy

Determining green growth as the key to sustainable development, the Government of Vietnam has issued the Green Growth Strategy for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050 to turn Vietnam into a country with sustainable development. To concretize the green growth strategy, Vietnam has issued the National Action Plan on Green Growth for the period 2021-2030. The plan includes 18 topics, 57 groups of tasks and activities and 134 specific tasks and activities identified, comprehensively and specifically addressing the content and requirements for each field related to production, operations and social life.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that the green transition process comes with many difficulties and challenges, especially in ensuring inclusiveness, comprehensiveness and people-centered orientation. Therefore, it is necessary to proactively address issues to accelerate the transition to a greener economy; aiming for “no one left behind” in this process.

To move towards a green economy, we must start from the key areas that have the greatest impact on the environment. Therefore, green energy development is given top priority, gradually shifting the exploitation and use of fossil energy sources to renewable energy, solutions to use energy sources effectively, economically, and promote new production technology based on the use of new and clean energy.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has advised on the development and submission to the Prime Minister for approval of 3 national sector plans in the energy sector, including the National Electricity Development Plan (Electricity Plan VIII), the General Plan on National Energy and Plan on petrolium reserve and supply infrastructure. “Good implementation of these plans will contribute to firmly ensuring national energy security, at the same time, institutionalizing the modern market in the direction of improving the efficiency of allocation and mobilization of resources, from there, promoting the formation of an industrial ecosystem, in accordance with the commitment to net zero emissions by 2050", the Minister of Industry and Trade emphasized.

Mr. Nguyen Sy Linh, Head of the Department of Climate Change and Global Issues - Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) said that international commitments such as those on reducing stream emissions to zero, commitments to reduce global methane emissions or commitments related to ending deforestation, especially tropical forests, etc are commitments that will affect Vietnamese businesses , especially production and export activities. Businesses need to know that climate change not only creates challenges but also creates opportunities.

According to Mr. Hoang Van Tam, Deputy Chief of the Office of Climate Change and Green Growth (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in order to reduce carbon footprint and grow green in the fields of energy and industry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a long-term plan until 2030 and vision to 2050. If we want to change the emission structure or reduce it strongly, it is a very basic and long-term solution to restructure the industry and the proportion of industries and sectors with large greenhouse gas emissions in Vietnam.

Sustainable value

Sharing about solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, Mr. Nguyen Van Dat, Technical Department, Vietnam Chemical Group emphasized 3 groups of solutions including: Saving energy, using energy effectively; CO2 capture and storage and energy conversion. In 2022 alone, the value of savings from energy and raw materials will bring hundreds of billions of dong to the group. For CO2 capture and storage, at two member units of the Group, Ninh Binh Fertilizer Company Limited and Ha Bac Fertilizer Joint Stock Company have invested in a CO2 recovery system, the average annual amount of CO2 recovered is 30 - 40 thousand tons of CO2.

"Solution groups not only bring efficiency in production and business but also create prestige for fertilizer products in the domestic market as well as the international market," Mr. Nguyen Van Dat said.

Not only in terms of climate change, energy, green and sustainable development have been forming new "rules of the game" in trade and investment. Many developed economies in the world have set stricter environmental regulations on imported goods such as the European green growth policy, the European green agreement, along with a series of mechanisms. programs such as: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM); Farm to Fork Strategy; Circular Economy Action Plan or Biodiversity Strategy until 2030, etc.

According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Linh, for businesses that produce consumptively and use a lot of energy, they need to convert in the direction of both economical and efficient use while also converting the energy source used. For example, switching the power source from coal-fired power to renewable energy sources to reduce the carbon footprint of products. This is like a "passport" to access international markets, especially markets that require calculation of emissions and carbon footprint for each product.

Ms. Mira Nagy, Head of Component, Project Towards Circular (Go Circular), German International Cooperation Organization (GIZ) said that, with the 2nd EU Circular Economy Development Action Plan ( CEAP) outlines a comprehensive list of ambitious measures that are expected to have far-reaching impacts at the global level and on third countries outside the EU, including on Vietnamese exports. Specifically, it will impact the raw material production and preliminary processing processes, including the production process. Besides, the regulations on eco-design for sustainable products (ESPR) can be applied to almost every item on the EU market. This regulation builds on eco-design and energy labeling directives that will also affect many of Vietnam's export industries. "Besides the challenge, Vietnam's industry has a good advantage to benefit from circular economy requirements. Vietnam can develop by leaps and bounds to become a global green production center", Ms. Mira Nagy identify.

Experts say that, in order to not be eliminated from the game by the high environmental and social standards set by import markets, the problem for exporting countries is to change their thinking and attitudes. Focus on the "greenness" of the supply chain in international trade to meet the strict technical requirements of the market.

​Sustainable development has become an inevitable trend and businesses that know how to take advantage of opportunities from climate change will receive new economic and financial models, have the opportunity to participate in the carbon market, helping businesses accelerate the process of building sustainable pillars. At the same time, businesses can promote trade cooperation, investment for development, and mobilize capital and technology from investment funds and financial institutions to develop business in a green and sustainable direction, building brands for environmentally and climate-friendly products according to market trends.