POLITICAL DECLARATION ON THE JUST ENERGY TRANSITION IN VIET NAM

On 14 December 2022, the political declaration on Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership was agreed by the Government of Viet Nam and the International Partners Group, consisting of the European Union, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States, Japan, the Federal Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Denmark, and Norway.  

Even being a fast-developing lower middle-income country that has resulted in increasing demand for power and energy, Vietnam made its strong commitment to tackle climate change by bringing net emissions to zero by 2050 and supporting the JETP. If energy is the most important input for long-term economic growth, then the green transition will drive the sustainable development and improve the living conditions of Vietnamese people. This transition needs to ensure that the most vulnerable people including workers, consumers, affected communities can benefit equally from the creation of quality green jobs, local value chains, and industrial innovation. This Partnership will support the country in terms of finance, technology, capacity building, improvement of policy and regulations that will be in line with its net zero objectives and just energy transition road map.  

According to the political declaration, the International Partners Group will mobilize USD 15.5 billion of public and private sector over the next three to five years to support Vietnam to reach its net zero ambition by 2050. This financial mobilization will be enabled by the adoption of the Viet Nam JETP Resource Mobilization Plan (JETP – RMP) that will focus on 8 key fundamentals: (i) improve the regulatory framework to facilitate investment into renewable energy and energy efficiency; (ii) reduce carbon intensity of power sector and bring down the project pipeline for coal-fired generation; (iii) support the deployment of renewable energy; (vi) ensure the social inclusion consisting of benefit from green transition, access to clean energy; (v) create green jobs by organizing educational, vocational training and re-skilling programs; (vi) involve the private sector into national environmental engagements; (vii) develop the renewable energy industry including renewable energy hubs, storage battery and renewable energy equipment manufacturing; (viii) envisage land use for clean energy production.