Vietnam's Energy Conundrum
Growing the economy, without the emissions
Good afternoon! Hello to all new readers (and there have been a lot recently). This is the Vietnam Weekly, written by reporter Mike Tatarski. Today’s edition is exclusively for paying subscribers, while Friday’s newsletter will be free to read (as always). A paid subscription gives you access to this post and all future exclusive articles, in addition to the full Vietnam Weekly archive dating back to 2018. If you haven’t already, you can upgrade for US$5/month or US$50/year below. There are also group subscriptions available.
The next subscriber-only newsletter will cover a ton of recent discussions regarding future planning and development here in Ho Chi Minh City, much of which focuses on the Saigon River.
On to the news.
I’ve been meaning to write about Vietnam’s power sector and energy transition for some time, but it’s tricky to determine when exactly to do that.
There’s no shortage (pun intended) of news in these areas, meaning there very well could be some major development right after this is published.
Whatever the case, now is as good a time as any to dive in. Let’s start with a few high-level policies before getting into the details of energy supply, EVN’s financial health, coal imports, Ho Chi Minh City’s rooftop solar ambitions, and more.
The Plans
Back in late July, Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà approved the National Energy Master Plan through 2030 - which is not the same as Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8).
The plan lays out an overarching goal of delivering a sufficient energy supply for annual GDP growth of roughly 7% for the rest of this decade. It features highly ambitious targets by mid-century.
These include having renewables account for up to 20% of total energy sources by 2030 and up to 85% by 2050, with greenhouse gas emissions falling from over 400 million tons per year in 2030 to about 100 million tons in 2050.
Earlier this month, DPM Hà also approved “a plan for the implementation of the Political Declaration on establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership,” or JETP.
My eyes glaze over at the thought of a plan to implement a declaration to establish something, but this was an important step in the slow process of this US$15.5 billion deal actually happening.