Vietnam Housing NAMA among top range of 58 NAMAs submitted to the 7th Call of the NAMA Facility
In September 2020, GIZ together with both the Ministry of Construction (MOC) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) completed an Outline for a NAMA Support Project on decarbonizing Viet Nam´s high rise residential mid-income housing segment. The proposal for the NAMA Support Project was submitted to the 7th Call of the NAMA Facility, an international fund for climate finance. NAMAs (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) are voluntary climate protection measures, which are embedded in the recipient countries’ national development plans. They are an important instrument for the achievement of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
In late January 2021, the Vietnamese Government received the news that the NAMA Support Project Outline submitted by GIZ was selected to undergo the In-depth assessment. Out of 58 submitted project outlines, 11 had made it into this stage.
Subsequently, the team of the project “Support to Viet Nam for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement” together with the partner ministries, project partner AFD France, and the team of the Viet Nam component of the “Programme for Energy Efficiency In Buildings” joined forces to organise a one-week lasting In-depth assessment. The purpose was to shed light on every single aspect of the NAMA Support Project, such as the modality of the business model or the financial support mechanism, governmental ownership and stakeholder commitment, or the link to Viet Nam´s NDC and climate policy framework, as well as monitoring and reporting requirements under the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The in-depth assessment took place from 1st to 5th March. All together, nearly 40 stakeholders were mobilized to advocate for the Housing NAMA Support Project, among them representatives of MOC, MONRE, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Finance. They repeatedly confirmed the Importance of this project for Viet Nam´s conditional climate mitigation targets and expressed their strong commitment to cooperate on the Implementation of this NAMA Support Project.
The project partners are now keenly awaiting the outcome of the in-depth assessment – if the Viet Nam Housing NAMA was selected to proceed further, It would enter the one-year lasting detailed preparation phase. The Decision Board of the NAMA Facility will convene In April 2020.
The NAMA Support Project envisages to introduce an incentive system for energy consumption in high-rise apartment buildings. By establishing a governmental carbon-performance labelling scheme and linking it to a financial mechanism via a digital platform, both housing developers and apartment owners gain access to concessional loans – housing developers for energy efficient building design, and apartment owners when purchasing highly energy-efficient appliances. The NAMA Facility grant will thereby leverage a credit offered by ADF, which will allow BIDV to borrow under concessional terms. BIDV will then on-lend the concessional credit line at below-market rates to both developers and apartment owners. To ensure sustainability of the financing after the NSP, green bonds issued by commercial banks will raise the capital for investments in the low-carbon buildings and low-carbon apartments, to ensure a similar interest rate advantage as through the concessional credit line.
The NAMA Facility was launched by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS, former DECC) in December 2012. The Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate (EFKM) and the European Commission joined the NAMA Facility as new Donors in 2015. NAMAs are an important vehicle to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
The NAMA Facility supports the implementation of transformative NAMAs and focuses on those parts of NAMA plans that are ambitious and aspirational and are pushing to do much more than business as usual to mitigate the impacts of climate change. NAMA Support Projects (NSPs) are selected for support through an open and competitive process, which ensures that the most ambitious NAMA Support Projects from around the world go forward.