HANOI: Vietnam’s prime minister approved a long-awaited power plan for this decade that needs US$134.7 billion of funding for new power plants and grids, the government said late on Monday (May 15), in a move that may help unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment.
The plan, known as PDP8, is aimed at ensuring energy security for the Southeast Asian country while it begins the transition from its current heavy reliance on coal to becoming carbon-neutral by mid-century.
Amid internal squabbles and work on complex reforms, the plan has been delayed for more than two years, and has seen a dozen of draft versions before the approval by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, which now needs the formal green light from the rubber-stamp parliament, possibly this month, before its final adoption.
The plan is important to unlock an initial investment of US$15.5 billion in green-transition funds pledged to Vietnam in December by the Group of 7 (G7) nations and other wealthier countries. Half of the funds will come from the public sector and the rest from private investors.
After the deal, negotiators
have struggled for months to progress on preliminary work to allocate the funding, multiple officials told Reuters, as Vietnam officials maintained their reticence to accept loans, which are by far the biggest component of the promised public funds.
One diplomat from the G7
donors’ group told Reuters on Tuesday the approval was an important step, necessary to unlock funding for renewable projects, especially offshore wind. It was however not completely in line with G7 goals, the diplomat added, as the country will still heavily rely on coal this decade.
To complete its transition to carbon-neutrality with total phase-out of coal by 2050, the government estimates it needs a whopping US$658 billion, of which one-fifth would have to be disbursed this decade.
The industry ministry, which prepared the document, said in a statement late on Monday that, under the plan, half of office buildings and homes in Vietnam would be powered by rooftop solar panels by 2030.
The country would also aim to generate green energy for exports, with a target of 5 to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
Source: Reuters
