Vietnamese and Danish experts exchange experiences on monitoring of electricity usage in a plant. — Photo courtesy of Denmark Embassy in Viet Nam

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has issued the Guidelines for Developing Provincial Action Plan on Energy Efficiency for the 2020-25 period.

The guidelines, drafted with the support of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme, will help all 63 provinces and cities of Viet Nam to map energy use and prepare their own action plan to implement energy saving efforts.

This set of guidelines is one of the key outputs of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme as it provides an essential base for the energy efficiency efforts in Viet Nam towards the target of achieving 5-7 per cent energy savings on a national level in the 2019-25 period. The set of guidelines is a result of more than two years of close work between MoIT, the Danish Energy Agency and the two partner provinces of Dong Nai and Bac Giang.

“The MoIT highly appreciates the Danish government’s support to Viet Nam in the energy sector. The set of guidelines for developing provincial action plans on energy efficiency is an important deliverable of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme and will serve as one of the valuable tools for Viet Nam in our efforts to achieve the national energy efficiency targets,” said Hoang Quoc Vuong, Deputy Minister of MoIT.

“The Government of Viet Nam has on many occasions shown its strong commitment to green development. The Government’s decision to adopt a cost-effective energy pathway, in my opinion, is very wise and encouraging since energy efficiency plays a key role in the green transition of any country. I am delighted to see that the good cooperation between Danish and Vietnamese experts in the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership Programme has yielded strong outputs and partly contributed to Viet Nam’s realisation of its national targets on energy saving and consequently reduction of greenhouse gases,” said Kim Højlund Christensen, Ambassador of Denmark in Viet Nam.

Another important component of the Danish-Vietnamese Energy Partnership is the release of the biennial ‘Viet Nam Energy Outlook’ report. The report emphasises energy efficiency as a cost-efficient tool for Viet Nam’s green transition towards 2030 and 2050 and recommends investments in energy saving technology.

Viet Nam’s industrial sector is one of the most energy consuming sectors of the country and is, therefore, an important factor in the transition to a low-carbon society.

Calculations show that if existing legislation is enforced, the sector could save at least 8 per cent of its current annual energy consumption by 2025. With new methods, tools and incentives based on Danish experiences, the saving rate could even be higher.

Viet Nam has experienced a significant increase in energy consumption, especially power consumption with an annual growth rate of about 9-10 per cent in this decade.

According to the revised National Power Development Plan 7 approved by the Government of Viet Nam, the total national energy consumption, especially fossil fuel consumption, will increase rapidly in the coming period in order to meet the country’s high economic growth. Meanwhile, the Government is committed to the Paris Agreement and aims to ensure sustainable development to protect the climate and the environment. — VNS