Foreign experts highly appreciate Vietnam's commitment at COP26

People catch fish in flooded fields during flood season

Climate policy expert at Climate Analytics, Ms. Claire Stockwell, recently appreciated Vietnam's signing of the Declaration on the transition from coal to clean electricity at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) that just ended in Glasgow, UK.

“Vietnam’s approval of the coal phase-out agreement is a welcome development,” Ms. Stockwell stressed.

She said that to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement on climate change, coal must be phased out of the electricity sector by 2030 in OECD countries and globally by 2040.

Importantly, however, the transition from coal needs to be to renewables, not to natural gas, and total phase-out needs to be achieved by 2040, not “the 2040s.”

According to Ms. Stockwell, the above statement said that Vietnam and a number of countries committed to rapidly scale up technology and policies this decade to achieve the transition from coal power generation by the 2030s (or as soon as possible) for major economies and by the 2040s (or as soon as possible thereafter) globally.

The statement said countries would stop issuing licenses for coal-fired power projects without financial agreements, halt new construction plans and end new direct government support.

Ms. Stockwell said that Climate Analytics is in the process of assessing Vietnam's 2050 net zero emissions target.

The COP26 conference ended on November 13 with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Agreement, which reaffirmed the goal of limiting the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels; calling for "a phase-out of coal power without carbon capture and storage technology and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."

One of the main contents of the COP26 Conference is the goal of bringing net emissions to zero, which is also strongly committed by many world leaders.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed Vietnam's strong commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

The COP26 conference witnessed many commitments from global leaders to combat climate change and protect the environment. 105 countries, including Vietnam, participated in the event to announce the Global Methane Emission Reduction Commitment.

Vietnam also participated in the Action on Forests and Land Use event chaired by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where more than 100 global leaders committed to halting and reversing deforestation and land degradation by 2030, contributing to the goal of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Global leaders also approved a $19 billion public-private fund to invest in forest protection and restoration; and a plan to reverse deforestation.

According to Vietnam+