Green growth in Vietnam has achieved some positive results/Illustration photo

Green growth policy in recent times

Recognizing the impacts of climate change on people's lives, in recent years, Vietnam has had a series of legal documents and policies on green growth, such as:

In 2012, the Government approved the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2011-2020 period, with a vision to 2050. This is considered the key to ensuring the goals set out in the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the 2011-2020 period. The issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, greening production, greening lifestyles and sustainable consumption is raised through the implementation of 17 groups of solutions. In particular, focusing on communication, raising awareness, mobilizing resources for implementation; training and developing human resources; researching and deploying science and technology; improving efficiency and effectiveness of energy use; reducing energy consumption in production activities, practicing sustainable consumption;...

The Prime Minister has approved the National Action Plan on Green Growth for the 2014-2020 period (Decision No. 403/QD-TTg dated March 20, 2014), including 12 groups with 66 specific activities under 4 main topics: Building national institutions and local green growth action plans, including 8 activities; reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the use of clean energy and renewable energy, including 20 activities; greening production, including 25 activities; greening lifestyles and sustainable consumption, including 13 activities.

Along with that, the National Assembly has issued new, supplemented and amended a number of laws related to TTX such as: Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy; Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; Amended Law on Environmental Protection; Law on Meteorology and Hydrology. A number of new legal documents have been developed to promote the implementation of activities related to TTX.

To ensure the implementation of the National Strategy on Green Growth, a series of support policies have also been issued, such as: Green credit policy is promoted through lending channels supporting interest rates for environmental protection, energy saving, renewable energy and clean technology projects; Resource tax policy with the principle that "non-renewable resources" apply high tax rates, "renewable resources" apply low tax rates; Tax policies are gradually improved in the direction of focusing on encouraging investment, production according to clean technology, energy saving and supporting the implementation of the National Strategy on Green Growth; State budget expenditure policy is also focused on prioritizing national target programs related to environmental protection.

Positive changes in implementing green growth strategy

According to the Report on the assessment of 10 years of implementing the National Strategy on Green Growth of Vietnam (Ministry of Planning and Investment), in the period of 2011-2020, Vietnam's TTX strategy has achieved many significant successes, contributing to the realization of commitments on sustainable development and response to climate change, especially the commitments to bring net emissions to "0" by 2050 at the COP26 Conference.

During the period 2011-2020, reduce 12.9% of greenhouse gas emissions in energy activities/illustrative photo

Specifically: Reduce 12.9% of greenhouse gas emissions in energy activities compared to the business-as-usual scenario, reduce an average of 1.8%/year in energy consumption per GDP, and the rate of industrial enterprises aware of cleaner production has increased from 28% in 2010 to 46.9% in 2020. By 2020, the forest coverage rate reached 42%. Vietnam has focused on greening production and investing in renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

The Prime Minister has approved the "National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050" (Decision 1658/QD-TTg dated October 1, 2021) to transform the growth model towards sustainability, apply digital technology and develop sustainable infrastructure.

When developing a local green growth plan, it is necessary to closely follow 10 priority sectoral topics such as energy, industry, transportation and logistics services, construction, agriculture and rural development, waste management and air quality, resource management, disaster risk management, blue economy, healthcare, and tourism; along with 8 general topics covering contents such as policy institutions, education and communication, green human resources and jobs, green finance and investment, innovative technology, international integration and cooperation, equality in green transformation, promoting green consumption and purchasing.

Difficulties, challenges and solutions

Besides positive results, the implementation of the Green Growth Strategy in Vietnam still faces many difficulties and challenges such as:

Firstly, the awareness of ministries, branches and local authorities about the Green Growth Strategy is not clear; the projects that ministries, branches and localities have been and are implementing related to the National Strategy on Green Growth are all based on financial and technical support from international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not originating from the internal capacity of ministries, branches and localities;

Second, there are conflicts and overlaps in goals between strategies: Sustainable development strategy; National strategy on climate change response; Green growth strategy; Environmental protection strategy;...

Third, the resources for implementing TTX mainly come from public investment, the participation of non-budgetary components is still limited. Financial resources for TTX in our country depend heavily on state financial resources, without promoting corporate financial resources and support from international organizations.

In addition, there are difficulties in capital and investment resources for the transition to the TTX model of localities. Although the Green Growth Strategy is applied and integrated into socio-economic development plans and programs, many localities are facing many challenges. Not all localities are ready with high-quality infrastructure, advanced technology and highly skilled human resources to be able to immediately participate in the transition to TTX and sustainable growth.

Based on the above legal and practical bases, to promote the implementation of the TTX Strategy, according to experts, in the coming time, it is necessary to focus on completing the planning and investment policy framework. Specifically, it is necessary to complete and soon issue a set of national TTX measurement indicators of Vietnam. Accordingly, it is necessary to add a number of TTX indicators to the system of socio-economic development indicators. Prepare to complete and apply the set of TTX indicators to the development of the 5-year socio-economic development plan (2021-2025).

In addition, complete the financial policy framework for green growth. Develop a policy framework for allocating and managing the national budget to serve the implementation of the Green Growth Strategy. In addition, complete the financial policy framework (including: Taxes, fees, subsidies, funds, sanctions, green criteria, sustainable development for listed enterprises on the stock exchange) related to promoting the implementation of the Green Growth Strategy; Develop a mechanism to support the private sector in preparing and implementing green growth projects.

Raising awareness of TTX for leaders at all levels in state management agencies, sectors, localities and the business sector.

World Bank (WB): Green growth is efficient in the use of natural resources, minimizing pollution and environmental impacts, being able to adapt to natural hazards and the role of environmental management and natural capital in disaster prevention...

Huy Tung