Installing roof-top solar power system at a household in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA) Cao Tung Son, Head of the Hydrometeorology and Climate ChangeOffice under the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that thecity has cooperated with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) inimplementing a project to develop Vietnam Urban Energy Security (VUES).
The project aims to support facilities with large GHGemissions, improving the city’s capacity to build its annual greenhouse gasinventory reports, seeking measures to use water effectively in publicfacilities and works. Besides, it also focuses on supporting the city in buildinga roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions.
According to the VUES research team which helps HCM City build its emission reductionplan, the city’s GHG emissions are expected to be reduced toabout 245 million tonnes of CO2 by 2050, with the energy using sectors alone emittingabout 241.3 million tonnes of CO2. The team underlined the urgent need to speedup green development solutions and efforts to reduce GHG emissions.
Prof. Dr. Ho Quoc Bang, head of the team, said that it has analysed experiences from many cities in the world, including Copenhagen(Denmark), Tokyo (Japan), Kolkata (India) during the building of the plan, anddeciding that the city needs to promote the development of rooftop solar power,offshore wind power and power generated from waste, while implementing economicrestructuring towards stepping up clean production industries.
In 2018, industry was the largest source of emissions in HCMCity, accounting for 34.5% of total emissions, followed by traffic, commerce,and households. By 2050, the commercial sector is predicted to be the largestsource of emissions, while industry is likely to rank second, followed bytransport, he noted.
The city can pilot special mechanisms to boost the growth ofgreen energy and renewable energy, and implement green transformation, herecommended.
Dr. Pau Dargusch, from Australia’s Queensland University who is a consultant for the VUES project, held that in order to implement an effective carbon offsetmechanism, HCM City should establish an agency to act as a contact point in thefield, with a clear mission and governance structure different from other stateadministrative management agencies.
In the short term, the agency can identify projects that canbe implemented quickly and easily, he said, adding that in thelonger term, it will develop collaborative initiatives with private organisations to help them estimate their carbon accounts and seek and implementemissions reduction projects.
Under the project’s framework, the city has organised threetraining courses for local firms on greenhouse gas inventory, while supporting10 enterprises in building their GHG inventory reports and giving advice onwater saving to a number of public buildings and works.
It has signed an agreement with the World Bank to implement the activities of the Low Carbon Emissions Technical Group, while carrying out project TA9608 - REG on Strengthening Knowledge and Actions for Air QualityImprovement funded by the Asian Development Bank, and coordinating with the Departmentof Environmental Engineering of Osaka (Japan) to implement the low carbon emissioncity development programme./.
VNA
