Many people are willing to support
The Hanoi People's Committee is collecting opinions to complete the draft Resolution stipulating criteria, conditions, order and procedures for determining low-emission zones in the area to implement the Capital Law in 2024.
Accordingly, road motor vehicles as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 34 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order 2024 (except electric cars and electric motorbikes), when moving into low emission zones, must comply with emission standards.
Despite concerns, many people expressed support for the city's policy. Ms. Mai Ngoc Huyen in Tay Mo ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi shared that she currently goes to work in Hoan Kiem district by motorbike running on gasoline. Although this is a popular and cheap means of transport, she feels tired of the exhaust fumes every time she goes out on the street. Especially on hot sunny days, stopping at red lights makes her feel suffocated.
“If the city restricts gasoline vehicles, my family will have to spend money to switch to buying electric vehicles. Although it will cost more, my family is ready and supportive,” Ms. Huyen expressed her opinion.
Mr. Hoang Van Duc in Long Bien district also said: "Although my income is not high, I support the conversion to green and clean vehicles. I hope that when the city converts, there will be more mechanisms to support people."
Green transformation solutions
Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thao - lecturer of the Faculty of Construction, University of Transport - said that current transportation activities mainly use traditional fuels, fossil fuels such as gasoline. This type of fuel will emit greenhouse gases. According to research, each regular car, every 1km it runs, will emit 250-252g of CO2 emissions into the environment. If calculated in 1 year, the amount of CO2 that this car emits into the environment is 3 tons.
According to calculations, in 2023, greenhouse gas emissions across Vietnam will reach nearly 90 million tons and will continue to increase rapidly in the following years.
In 2021, when we join the United Nations commitment to bring emissions to zero by 2050 at COP26, the story is no longer just about reducing emissions but reducing emissions to zero. The goal is to bring emissions to zero by 2050, which can be said to be an extremely challenging goal.
To reduce emissions to zero, the general principle to be followed is to move from high to low emissions and from low to zero emissions. To do this, we must convert energy. That is, we must convert from high-emission energy to clean energy. The essence of energy conversion is technology conversion. In addition, we must convert the formula, from high-emission to low-emission.
In the transport sector, there are pillars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as increasing fuel efficiency; mode shift from high to low emissions; vehicle conversion. In the context of net zero emissions... other pillars such as demand management; demand shift to eliminate old vehicles; carbon capture... To achieve the goal of zero emissions, we must not only increase the intensity but also add many more solutions.
According to Mr. Thai Ho Phuong - Director of Hanoi Public Transport Operation Center, the city has just had the National Assembly pass the Capital Law, which includes a number of issues on the environment and fossil energy conversion. The Department of Transport is currently organizing the implementation and submitting the project for implementation as soon as possible. Recently, the City People's Council met and issued Decision 19, which is related to the necessity of the project to develop green vehicles in Hanoi.
"In my opinion, reducing green vehicle emissions needs to be done synchronously in a chain because currently in the city there are some bus stops where the waiting rooms become garbage collection points, so it cannot be green. In addition to green vehicles such as green buses or green railways, another thing that needs to be green is the attitude of drivers and ticket sellers. Green vehicles with ungreen attitudes are not green yet" - Mr. Phuong emphasized.
In the past time, 10 green bus routes have reduced CO2 emissions by 36.5 thousand tons, equivalent to planting 1.68 million trees. We have green buses, green urban railways and subsidies for people to switch to green. This shows that the State, the City and businesses are very active in participating in the green transformation of the Capital.
According to statistics, in Hanoi, the number of vehicles increases by about 390,000 vehicles each year, 32,750 vehicles each month, and 1,100 vehicles each day. Currently, Hanoi has more than 7.8 million road vehicles, including more than 6 million motorbikes, more than 1 million cars of all kinds, not to mention 1.2 million vehicles from neighboring localities.
With the current growth rate of vehicles (about 10%/year), it is forecasted that by 2025, Hanoi will have about 1.3 million cars and 7.3 million motorbikes; by 2030, there will be about 1.7 million cars and 7.7 million motorbikes. Thus, personal motor vehicles will exceed the capacity of the urban road system by 7.5 - 10.6 times.
