The Department of Climate Change recently organized a workshop with other agencies on the draft amending articles of Decree 06/2022/ND-CP and the draft amending of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment’s (MONRE) Circular No 01/2022.

Tang The Cuong, head of the Department of Climate Change, said after the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection was enacted, the government on January 7, 2022 promulgated Decree 06/2022 on greenhouse gas emission mitigation and ozone layer protection. 

However, the carbon market and demand for carbon credit exchanges has been growing rapidly, while Vietnam still lacks legal foundations to start the emission quota and carbon credit markets.

Pham Van Hung from VCCI (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry) said many large corporations and FIEs (foreign invested enterprises) have shown interest in greenhouse gas emission stocktaking and carbon market deployment. 

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises, mostly SMEs (small and medium enterprises), still don’t have deep knowledge about this.

VCCI said the compilation agency needs to pay attention to domestic enterprises and find out if they can satisfy the requirements stipulated in new regulations as set in the roadmap.

Regarding the allocation of emission quotas, the VCCI representative asked to clarify the regulation on allocating quotas, especially choices for emission coefficient, or calculation methods.

Another issue concerned by many enterprises and experts is the procedure of licensing to units taking stock of greenhouse gas emissions. They said it is necessary to make clear if the regulation on business conditions applied to these institutions would contradict the Investment Law. The law doesn’t recognize greenhouse gas emission reductions and adaptation to climate change as a conditional business field.

Regarding certificates on registration in the field of science and technology for inspection units, a representative of VUSTA (Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations) said there should be an additional provision to specify which department will grant licenses to particular science and technology fields.

Meanwhile, Tran Anh Tuan from Electricity of Vietnam, has concern about the accuracy of figures about emissions, to be used as the basis for quota calculation and allocation. Many thermal power plants still don’t understand the stocktaking and emission mitigation measures.

Nguyen Viet Dung from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology commented that the staff of inspection agencies and third parties that do the stocktaking are still not sufficiently qualified and experienced.

Hanh Nguyen