Many businesses have refused to join a clean production and energy efficiency project because they don’t find attractive enough incentives, experts said at a conference on Thursday.

The conference was held to review implementation of the five-year Viet Nam Clean Production and Energy Efficiency Project (CPEE) that closed this month.

“To encourage firms and to reach a more ambitious goal, more attractive incentives are needed,” Nguyen Dinh Hiep, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency Association, said at the conference.

The World Bank-funded CPEE project aimed to strengthen capacity for effective delivery of the national energy efficiency programme in key industrial sectors. This would improve energy efficiency and reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions.

The project had set goal of improving energy efficiency to more than 360,000 TOEs (tonnes oil equivalent) and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 1.25 million TCO2 (tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent) by 2017.

“However, only 70 per cent of the goals have been met,” said a representative from the Department of Science, Technology and Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The department estimated that the project would help save 249,000 TOEs of energy and reduce emissions by 933,000 TCO2 this year.

To date, about 89 per cent of the project’s investment has been disbursed, and disbursement of the remaining funds would continue, officials said, without elaborating.

The World Bank estimates that Viet Nam can effect energy savings of 11 per cent with proper investment in energy consumption.

Experts also said that Viet Nam needs more policies that encourage firms to save energy and promote energy efficiency in the long term. — VNS