Viet Nam at COP26 – From commitment to action 

Steering Committee of the Ministry of Transport established for implementing Viet Nam’s COP26 commitments

Immediately after COP26, Viet Nam displayed its determination to implement its announced commitments. Firstly the country begun establishing the National Steering Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, to discuss and undertake the commitments. Viet Nam is currently completing the relevant legal framework in an urgent manner; studying and developing specific plans, measures and roadmaps; reviewing and adjusting relevant strategies as well as mobilizing investment resources, to fulfil these commitments. Moreover, the Prime Minister suggested eight contents to focus on in the implementation phase. Among these are the plan to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the reduction of vehicles using fossil fuels combined with the promotion of electric vehicles and the promotion of communication to encourage all people and enterprises to actively participate in decarbonising transport.

Aligned with this orientation, on February 14th 2022, Minister Nguyen Van The, of the Ministry of Transport (MOT), led the meeting with the relevant units on the stratgey for commitment implementation. The Minister proposed that the Department of Environment (DOE) should act as the main advising unit in cooperation with the Steering Committee of the MOT. The Director of DOE, Mr Tran Anh Duong, added that at the present, transport means and equipment in the road, railway, inland waterway, maritime and aviation sub-sectors, mainly use fossil fuels, greatly contributing to the country’s GHG emissions. In order to reach the goal of “net-zero” emissions by 2050, the transportation sector must take two key measures. Transport means and equipment which use fossil fuels shall be exchanged for ones which use electrical energy, hydrogen, ammonia or synthetic gasoline and public transport development needs to be promoted across the country.

Mr. Tran Anh Duong also shared that “the DOE has advised and submitted to Deputy Minister, Le Anh Tuan, to issue five documents to assign departments/units, based on their functions, tasks, and management scope, to review and propose adjustment to relevant strategies, planning and plans to align to the goal of “net-zero” emissions by 2050”. Along with that, the MOT will lead the research and development of the Action Program on green energy transformation, reducing carbon and methane emissions in the transport sector. 

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is currently implementing the project “Support the Ministry of Transport to Implement Viet Nam’s NDC under the framework of the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA)“ of which the DOE is the project owner. The project is currently supporting the MOT in improving the policy framework for electric mobility (including the development of a national- and city-level e-mobility roadmap) and fuel economy; developing an MRV system to track the GHG mitigation progress; and developing an ambitious transport contribution to Vietnam’s 2050 vision and the 2025 NDC, including a scenario to achieving “net-zero” emissions by 2050. One of the major activities that the project implements this year together with the MOT is to develop the Action Program on green energy transformation. This program will provide essential information and lessons learned from other countries, supporting Viet Nam to achieve its commitment from COP26. 


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