Vietnamese prime minister calls for more renewable energy

Dec 8, 2009, 5:00 GMT

Hanoi - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called for more renewable energy projects as a response to climate change, but provided no concrete plans, local press reported Tuesday.

Dung pushed for more investment in solar and wind power in a meeting with government agencies implementing a national target programme to respond to climate change, the newspaper Thanh Nien reported.

Official targets call for Vietnam to generate 3 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015 and 5 per cent by 2020. Current renewable energy capacity is far below those levels, and few new projects are on the horizon.

Vietnam has 'great potential for wind power,' said Nguyen Duc Cuong, who directs the renewable energy effort at the state-owned monopoly power company.

'But so far only one project of five (wind turbine) towers, with a total capacity of 7.5 megawatts, has been set up. And there is no promise of further action under discussion,' he said.

Electricity demand is growing by more 16 per cent per year. The government expects to meet new demand by quadrupling its coal-fired electricity generating capacity by 2015.

One recent paper estimated carbon dioxide emissions in Vietnam would rise 14 per cent per year until 2030.

'We are arguing seriously, what should Vietnam do?' said Nguyen Van Duc, deputy minister of natural resources and environment.

Duc said the national climate change response would begin setting up its projects in detail in 2011, and would not begin implementing them until 2015.

Monday's meeting also reviewed a report on the expected effects of climate change in Vietnam published in August by government experts. The scenario predicts a sea level rise of 75 centimetres by 2100, which would flood 19 per cent of the Mekong River delta and 18 per cent of the Red River delta, Vietnam's main rice growing areas.

Vietnam is among the developing countries expected to be most affected by climate change, according to the World Bank.