Developing new energy, renewable energy is an important task in contribution to greening the economy, reducing dependence on fossil fuel-based sources for green growth and sustainable development, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change.
National policies on sustainable development, green growth, in response to climate change in Industry and Trade sector for the period 2011-2020
The Vietnam Sustainable Development Strategy for 2011-2020 was approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 432/TTg dated 12 April 2012 with clear viewpoints and objectives on sustainable development of the country. It is to combine economic development with social development and protection of natural resources and the environment closely, rationally and harmoniously, to minimize the negative impacts of economic activities on the environment. Vietnam should rationally exploits and efficiently uses natural resources, especially non-renewable resources. It is to prevent, control and remediate environmental pollution and degradation, improve the quality of the environment, protect and develop forests, and conserve biodiversity. It is to limit the harmful impacts of natural disasters, actively adapt to climate change, and especially the sea level rise. The industry and trade sector plays an important role in successfully implementing the strategy of sustainable economic development with specific following tasks:
- Develop and implement a green growth strategy to ensure a low carbon economy. Energy saving and efficiency; Develop clean energy, renewable energy to ensure national energy security. Apply stepwise pricing of energy; gradually increase the share of clean energy and renewable energy in total energy consumption in Vietnam. Develop an environmental economic accounting system and add more environmental and social aspects to the national accounting framework (SNA).
- Develop a sustainable industry with the structure of various industries, technology, equipment to ensure the principle of environmental friendliness; Actively prevent and handle industrial pollution, to build a "green industry", to prioritize the development of environmentally friendly branches and technologies and promote hi-tech development in urban centers. Gradually develop the environmental industries.
- Step up the widespread application of cleaner production in order to raise the efficiency of the use of natural resources, raw materials, energy and water, at the same time to reduce the emission and limit the pollution, and protection of environmental quality, human health, and ensuring sustainable development.
- Build a civilized, harmonious and friendly-living culture. Gradually implement eco-labeling, green procurement. Development of ecologicalproducts and community initiatives on sustainable production and consumption. Apply policies that govern the undue consumption behavior.
To implement the Decision of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade advise the Government and the Prime Minister on the implementation of comprehensive and detailed solutions for each important area in order to achieve the development objectives; they are the sustainable development goals in the direction of green growth, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, environmentally friendly industry in the period 2011-2020, specifically:
- Strategy for development of Vietnam's industry to 2025, vision 2035 (Decision No. 879/QD-TTg dated June 9, 2014); Project on restructure of industry and trade to serve the cause of industrialization, modernization and sustainable development until 2020 with a vision to 2030 (Decision No. 2146/QD-TTg dated December 1, 2014);
- National Program of Action for Sustainable Production and Consumption to 2020, Vision 2030 (Decision 76/QD-TTg dated 11 January 2016), Cleaner Production Strategy for Industry until 2020 (Decision No. 1419 /QD-TTg dated September 7, 2009);
- The national target program on economical and efficient use of energy through the period of 2006-2015;
- And most recently, the plan to restructure the industry sector in 2018-2020 period, up to 2025, approved by Decision No. 598/QĐ-TTg dated May 25, 2018 of the Prime Minister. In the plan, the focus shifts towards green growth, responding to climate change, prescribed as follows:
+ To enhance the application of advanced production and technological systems and technologies of the Industry 4.0 in industrial production, combining industrial production with environmental protection to adapt for climate change; The use of resources and energy saving and efficiency in industrial production; Build up a list of projects and industrial factories that are likely to become environment pollutants and implement a roadmap to replace and eliminate obsolete equipment in factories and shut down the polluting factories.
+ To supplement and completethe environmental protection policies for a number of industries which are likely to cause high environmental pollution; To formulate, adjust and implement the system of standards and technical regulations in the industry and environment in conformity with international standards and practical conditions of Vietnam;
+ To attract investment into the development of clean energy, renewable energy and new energy in order to ensure national energy security, to achieve the objectives of green growth, to mitigate the impacts of climate change, and to supply sufficient energy at reasonable prices, taking its as a driving force for development of other industries.
Some results of the industry and trade sector towards green growth, sustainable development and response to climate change
In pursuit of the objective and task of greening production, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented a number of activities to promote the efficient use of natural resources, raw materials and fuels in the process of industrial production, polluting the environment, creating environmentally friendly products. Specifically:
In the period 2010 to now, cleaner production activities in industry have received 86 published newsletters and leaflets for dissemination to relevant stakeholders, 44 documents for training of Cleaner production, training for professionals, producers and managers, and the issuance of 22 technical manuals for industrial production sectors, to be updated and newly prepared and these books can be practically applied in enterprises, helping units improve the productivity, quality of products and meet the requirements of environmental protection.
The National Target Program for Energy Efficiency and Conservation in the period 2011-2015 is evaluated as having achieved the target of saving 11,262 million tons of oil equivalent, contributing significantly to reducing the consumption of fossil fuel types, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the field of energy across the country. The awareness of the community, businesses and the whole society has shown important results, attitudes and behaviors of consumers as well as manufacturers have been remarkably improved, showing clearly in the market of energy saving products, increasingly trusted and chosen by customers.
Implementing the National Action Plan on Sustainable Production and Consumption, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been gradually building a green distribution system through a system of large commercial centers and supermarkets nationwide in order to promote the promotion and development of environmentally friendly products with low carbon emissions. This meets the needs of the market and satisfies the consumer's interest in new products, energy savings and environmental protection.
For industrial production activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued circulars to set the energy consumption norms and minimum energy efficiency levels for energy-intensive industries such as steel, chemicals,beer, soft drinks, paper and plastics industries and will continue to improve and promulgate documents applicable to other industries.
Developing new energy and renewable energy is an important task contributing to greening the economy, reducing dependence on fossil fuel-based sources for green growth and sustainable development, and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change. To carry out this task, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted to competent authorities for promulgation of legal documents and to promote and organize the implementation of renewable energy development activities such as the NationalStrategy for Development to 2030 with a vision to 2050, to submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation of a number of mechanisms and policies to support the development of forms of renewable energy such as electricity generated from waste, biomass, wind and electricity. Many regulations have been issued to support the development of renewable electricity projects in Vietnam such as sample contracts, procedures, appraisal and approval of development planning and biomasselectricity.
Advantages, constraints and tasks, solutions to sustainable development of industry and trade sector towards green growth, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, in response to climate change
Advantages
A shift of the economy towards green growth and low carbon emissions is a common trend in the world. As a result, mechanisms and policies on industrial and commercial development in many countries have been increasingly improved towards the efficient use of energy, the development of new energy, renewable energy and reduction of house gas emissions.
Leadership orientation of the Party, the direction of the Government on sustainable development, green growth, response to climate change has helped the process of enrichment of the policies and strategies for development of the sector, especially the restructuring process of industry, which undergoes in-depth with quality and efficiency.
The achievements made in the Agenda 21 Agenda of Vietnam have provided momentum for economic development and sectors to have the favorable conditions to inherit and promote good lessons learned in the development process.
The effective support of donors and international organizations plays an important role in researching and proposing mechanisms and policies for sustainable development in the energy and industrial sectors. It is also to pave the road for capacity improvement to implement new tasks such as green growth, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and green production.
The awareness of the community and enterprises about the opportunities and benefits of implementing energy saving solutions, developing new energy, renewable energy, cleaner production, sustainable production and consumption has been improved. Thus, the attitude and behavior of consumers on green products, environmentally friendly, energy saving products have been dominant in the market, contributing to the orientation for manufacturers to develop their products in the direction of green growth, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions all of which facilitategreen production.
Constraints
In addition to the advantages mentioned above, the process of greening production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and aiming at sustainable development goals, the industry and trade sector has many constraints and challenges such as:
The climate change becomes complicated, unpredictable, seriously threatening the development achievements, stability and sustainability of the sector. The impact of natural disasters and floods in Vietnam in recent years has severely damaged the sustainable development of the industry and trade such as energy, industrial and commercial infrastructure.
The businesses and citizens’ awareness of the importance of long-term development strategies towards low carbon emissions is still limited. Therefore, there concern, investment in clean technology, low carbon emission is not commensurate with the requirements of long-term and sustainable development goals of the industry.
The demand for financing the green growth is enormous, while long-term resources for this are very limited. Projects on green growth are evaluated to bring long-term benefits to businesses and the economy. However, awareness of this subjectmatter is still limited in the financing, banking and business community. Therefore, the development of green growth projects is up the expectation.
The compulsory reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is not yet regulated by the law, while the technical guidelines of the international and domestic organization has not been promulgated. Therefore, this is still a very new issue for Vietnam in general and the industry in particular. The due attention and investment have not been a serious concern human resources and technology transfer on green growth.
Opportunities and challenges in the context of the current Industry 4.0 remain an open question for Vietnamese businesses to make the transition to a low-carbon, and green economy
New mechanisms and policies on climate change will have a significant impact on long-term development strategies for industry such as the carbon trading mechanism, carbon footprint policy in production and circulationof commodities in the market, global financial policies on restrictions of fossil fuel use.
Tasks and solutions to develop the industry and trade sector towards green growth, low carbon emissions, in response effectively to climate change.
To overcome the constraints and challenges mentioned above, to take advantage of new opportunities in the process of shifting the economy towards green growth and sustainable development, the industry and trade sector needs to synchronously deploy a number of immediate and yet long term solutions; specifically:
- Promote the dissemination and propagation of national policies and mechanisms, newly-arisenconcerns such as technical barriers, low emission development trends, green growth of countries in the world, and the region, especially in large markets that have been leading the global economy such as China, the US, the EU, etc.
- The government should endorse mechanisms and policies, which are both compulsory and encouraging the growth model, shifting to green growth and reduction of greenhouse gas emission.
- Expand the opportunities for businesses to access financial resources, transfer of low emission technologies, and green growth.
- Develop mechanisms and policies to assist businesses in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through new climate change mechanisms such as carbon trading and carbon credit exchange.
- Organize and effectively enact the Decision No. 598/QD-TTg dated May 25, 2018 of the Prime Minister approving the plan of industrial restructuring for the period 2018-2020, up to 2025, in which the tasks related to green growth, response to climate change and environmental protection will be implemented, including:
Strengthening the application of advanced production organization and application of high technologies and Industry 4.0 in industrial production, combining industrial production with environmental protection and responding to Climate Change; economical use of resources and energy saving and efficiency in industrial production; Build up a list of projects and industrial factories that are likely to pollute the environment and implement a roadmap to replace and eliminate obsolete equipment in factories and shut down those polluting factories.
It is to supplement and finalize the environmental protection policies for a number of industries which are likely to cause high environmental pollution; Develop, adjust and implement a system of technical specifications and regulations in industry and environment in accordance with international standards and practical conditions of Vietnam.
Attract the investment into the development of clean energy, renewable energy and new energy to ensure national energy security, to achieve green growth goals, to mitigate climate change and supply sufficient energy at reasonable prices, taking it as a driving force for other industries to develop.
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