Challenges await
Speaking at the seminar "Developing green transport: Challenges and solutions to attract investment resources" organized by the Ministry of Transport on August 22, Prof. Dr. Le Anh Tuan - Chairman of the Council of the University of Science and Technology - said that transport is the sector most dependent on fossil fuels. According to 2021 data, nearly 95% of energy demand in transport comes from this type of fuel.
This leads to the transport sector being one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions , accounting for nearly 24% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
In Vietnam, 2020 data shows that the transport sector accounts for nearly 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions (45.5 million tons of CO2) and is forecast to be 89.1 million tons of CO2 by 2030. Of which, roads account for the largest proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for more than 80%.
Vietnam is currently a country with a high growth rate of road vehicles. Statistics for the period 2005 - 2022 show a growth rate of 13.3%/year for cars (reaching 5 million cars), and 9.3%/year for motorbikes (with 72 million registered motorbikes). This leads to the need to control emissions, especially for road traffic.
Also sharing at this workshop, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan emphasized that all countries when aiming for the goal of net zero emissions have had difficult starts and no country dares to say that it has grasped all the policies and infrastructure to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by a certain year.
Determined to fulfill the commitment
Despite many difficulties, Vietnam has been making efforts to implement green transformation in the transport sector. On August 10, the Government Office announced the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at a meeting on green vehicle development policies and green vehicle charging station development policies.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha directed that green energy conversion is the most basic and important task in the process of implementing green growth goals as well as fulfilling Vietnam's commitments at international conferences.
The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 876/QD-TTg dated July 22, 2022 approving the Action Program on green energy conversion, carbon and methane emission reduction of the transport sector (Program) for ministries, branches and localities to implement the goals of developing a green transport system towards the goal of net greenhouse gas emissions of "0" by 2050.
In the past time, the Ministries of Transport, Construction, Planning and Investment, Finance, Industry and Trade and the People's Committees of localities have basically implemented the assigned tasks, initially contributing to the positive conversion of road vehicles to green energy. However, the implementation in ministries, branches and localities has not been really focused, has not had a focus, and has not yet produced clear results. Therefore, ministries and branches must have a proactive plan to promote green transformation in transport.
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said that implementing Vietnam's commitments at COP 26, the Prime Minister has issued a Decision approving an action program on green energy conversion and reducing carbon and methane emissions in the transport sector.
The action program has proposed specific solutions for five national transport and urban transport sectors, including: developing urban railway systems, high-speed railways, electrified national railways, developing green ports and a roadmap for converting vehicles to electricity and green energy.
After two years of implementing the Program, the Ministry of Transport and local ministries and sectors have actively implemented assigned solutions and achieved some initial results. However, the Program also faced many difficulties and challenges, especially solutions to attract investment resources to convert green infrastructure and green vehicles.
Therefore, in the coming time, units will focus on solutions to both achieve growth and development goals and achieve emission reduction goals in the transport sector, how to reduce greenhouse gases and methane in the process of exploiting, producing construction materials, exploiting, maintaining and repairing works; how to develop transport infrastructure synchronously with green energy infrastructure. Units will work together to develop policies to encourage people and businesses to switch vehicles.
