The Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) has been coordinating with the Forestry Department to help Vietnam earn at least 58 million USD a year from green house emission reduction.

According to SNV Vietnam Director Tom Derksen, Vietnam has eleven projects registered for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which bring an average of over 1 million Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) or carbon credits, equal to 19.8 million USD.

The SNV director further said that those credits give the industrialised country flexibility to reach the goal of emission reduction.

CDM, the first global environmental credit and investment mechanism, brings financial resources for countries like Vietnam to build an economy with little carbon gas.

The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) forecasts that global trading of waste gas could earn a revenue of 2 trillion USD by 2020. Vietnam ’s annual average CERs is still low, so the country must exert more efforts in exploiting the world carbon market.

Since 2003, the SNV Vietnam carried out the Biogas Programme, which has helped bring income for farmer households from selling CERs.

Under the programme, fifty-five thousand biogas tanks were built in 13 provinces, bringing CERs equivalent to 1 million USD. Each project helps reduce one tonne of carbon a year.

The programme plans to build 165 thousand biogas tanks by 2012 to shorten the amount of time women spend on cooking, about 110 million hours a year. Total revenue from selling CERs is expected to reach 3.2 million USD by 2012 to help improve living conditions of poor households./.