On the morning of 5/6, at the National Forum on Environment and Climate - From Policy to Action, Nguyen Tuan Quang, Deputy Director in charge of Climate Change at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, announced that greenhouse gas inventories could become an annual practice, rather than the current biennial schedule. This change is a key update in the draft amended Environmental Protection Law.

Quang explained that the biennial inventory cycle creates difficulties for businesses and regulatory bodies in monitoring, evaluating effectiveness, and formulating emission reduction policies.

"Regularly updated data, Quang noted, would enable closer monitoring of developments and better assessment of emission reduction commitments. This data would also form the basis for annual emission quota allocation and the operation of the carbon market", he said.

Nguyen Tuan Quang spoke about the draft regulations on greenhouse gas inventory on the morning of 5/6. Photo: Gia Chinh

For the first time, the draft amended law proposes empowering provincial People's Committees to conduct local greenhouse gas inventories and establish a list of facilities requiring inventory within their jurisdiction. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment compiles this list for submission to the Prime Minister for approval.

According to the drafting agency, this decentralization aims to enhance local proactivity in managing emission sources and developing realistic emission reduction plans. This approach would ensure more comprehensive and timely updates on facility-level emission reduction data.

The draft also clarifies the responsibilities of ministries overseeing specific sectors regarding the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) – Vietnam's greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement. While the current law largely assigns this responsibility to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the new provisions require ministries to directly propose targets, monitor, and assess emission reduction outcomes within their areas of oversight.

Regarding greenhouse gas emission quota allocation, the draft proposes transferring this responsibility from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to relevant sector-specific ministries. These ministries would then establish emission norms per product unit and allocate quotas to individual facilities under their purview.

A significant change involves adding criteria for determining which facilities receive greenhouse gas emission quotas. Current regulations allocate quotas to all facilities subject to greenhouse gas inventory. The draft, however, proposes prioritizing large emitters with adequate monitoring data for quota allocation during the carbon market's initial phase.

The drafting agency stated that this approach aligns with international best practices, ensuring accurate and transparent quota calculation and allocation once the carbon market becomes operational.

The entire process for greenhouse gas inventory, measurement, reporting, and verification of emission reduction results is expected to transition online. This digital shift aims to enhance transparency, reduce procedural time and costs for businesses, local authorities, and ministries. Furthermore, emission data will be centrally stored, streamlining future management, inspection, and carbon market operations.

The draft amended Environmental Protection Law is slated for submission to the National Assembly for consideration at its session later this year.

Gia Chinh