Poor financing and governance, suppression of activists put energy future at risk
Opinion Editorial by Maureen Harris and Liangyi Chang originally published in Nikkei Asia. Below are highlights
Relying heavily on coal, Vietnam is considered one of the fastest-growing per capita greenhouse gas emitters in the world, with emissions quadrupling between 2000 and 2015. It is also among Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, with energy demands projected to increase at least sixfold from 2020 to 2050. It is also one of the top five countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United States Agency for International Development.
For these reasons, Vietnam is at a critical juncture for tackling the climate crisis.
The country’s leadership is not turning a blind eye to these challenges. At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, the country made several laudable climate commitments, including the announcement of a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This paved the way in December 2022 for a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) — a relatively new financing mechanism aimed at accelerating clean energy transitions in emerging economies — with the European Union, the Group of Seven and other Global North countries, together known as the International Partners Group (IPG).
An explicit focus of the JETP is addressing the massive social consequences of the transformative change required by the energy transition. Following the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015 and other international instruments, the “Just” part of the name reflects the recognition that energy and climate financing should address historic inequalities and injustice as part of the decarbonization process.
Under the terms of the Vietnam JETP, IPG members pledged $15.5 billion in public and private financing. While these funds represent only a fraction of the estimated $135 billion needed to implement Vietnam’s power development plans by 2030 — and a much higher sum is required to implement the energy transition by 2050 — the JETP has the potential to establish a governance framework that can catalyze planning and investment toward a fair, funded and fossil fuel-free energy transition for Vietnam.
This includes the goal of achieving a just and inclusive transition through participation and a “broad social consensus” as set out in the political declaration establishing the partnership.
Unfortunately, the justice in the Vietnam JETP remains critically absent. The implications for its success, and for the broader energy transition process, cannot be overstated.
A report by International Rivers and the Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition titled “The Missing ‘Just’ in Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP)” was released recently. It outlines concerns over the JETP’s financing, governance, energy solutions and public participation that impede efforts toward a truly just transition.
Central to these concerns is the suppression of climate and environmental activists in Vietnam. Over the last few years, Vietnamese authorities have arrested and imprisoned six climate leaders and energy experts on false charges and increased crackdowns on independent organizations working on environmental and energy issues in the country. Several of those imprisoned were involved in high-profile campaign efforts to shift the country away from coal.
Currently serving a five-year sentence is Dang Dinh Bach, a lawyer and former director of the nonprofit Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, who has devoted his life to protecting communities facing pollution and environmental damage. June 24 marked his third year behind bars. Serving three years in prison is Hoang Thi Minh Hong, a former Obama Foundation scholar who is the founder and director of the nonprofit Change Vietnam. The sixth climate leader arrested, energy policy expert Ngo Thi To Nhien, was reportedly sentenced last month to 3 and a half years in prison.
The targeted attacks on climate leaders severely limit — if not eliminate — meaningful participation by civil society in the JETP’s development and implementation. The arrests and wider fears of persecution also impede access to information and participation of affected and vulnerable communities. Without civil society involvement, the transition will remain top-down, opaque and dominated by interests pushing false solutions and a business-as-usual mindset over the transformative change needed to build a truly just, sustainable and resilient energy system.
There are other concerns with the Vietnam JETP. For example, much of the financing is offered as market-rate loans, rather than grants. Industrialized and polluting donor countries have a responsibility for the financial burden of the transition in emerging economies, given their outsize contributions to the climate crisis through high CO2 emissions that have propelled their growth for decades.
“Just” transition financing must be based on climate justice, including the polluter-pays principle and reparations for loss and damage. Expensive loans will trap Vietnam — and Vietnamese people — deeper in debt cycles.
Further, despite the Vietnamese government’s high-level commitments to shift the country away from coal, the JETP implementation plan does not include a concrete timeline for coal phaseout or specific commitments to retiring any coal plants. While Vietnam halted the controversial Song Hau 2 coal plant earlier this month, citing financial concerns, other new coal plants remain in the pipeline.
Vietnam’s energy plans include proposals to scale up carbon-intensive and environmentally destructive energy options associated with onerous economic costs, including reliance on imported liquified natural gas, hydropower expansion and untested plans to convert coal plants to biomass and ammonia co-firing. These false solutions risk taking priority from the urgent investment needed to develop and utilize Vietnam’s abundant and largely untapped potential for solar and wind energy.
Ultimately, it is a critical moment for Vietnam, but also for the very concept of JETPs. In other JETP recipient countries, civil society is similarly voicing concerns and calling for a principled approach to financing the just transition and climate action.
There is still time to change course. High level talks in Hanoi this week on climate and trade with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, represent one opportunity.
Without a principled approach, the JETP risks not only furthering injustice, but jeopardizing Vietnam’s ability to implement the truly transformative and inclusive transition needed to meet its urgent climate challenges.
To read the full opinion piece, click here.
Maureen Harris is a senior adviser at International Rivers and coordinator of the Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition, and Liangyi Chang is Asia managing director at 350.org.
Featured photo: Smoke rises from the chimney of a paper factory outside Hanoi, Vietnam, in May 2018. Reuters