The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment is coordinating with the Environment Bureau of Osaka City of Japan to cut carbon emissions.

The partnership between the two cities comes amidst increased environmental pollution in the Vietnamese metropolis.

Ho Chi Minh City hopes the partnership will provide a learning experience that will allow it to leverage both domestic and international resources in order to improve ongoing environmental issues in the city.

Motor vehicles a primary concern

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the city’s high volume of carbon emissions results from three main sources—traffic, industrial activities, and construction activities.

Of them, traffic activities cause the greatest impact on the air quality in Ho Chi Minh City.

The fine dust concentration in the downtown area and Go Vap District, and at the An Suong, Huynh Tan Phat-Nguyen Van Linh, and Hang Xanh intersections is consistently measured at levels higher than what the city considers acceptable.  

The air pollution is also alarming in areas with industrial production activities, including the neighborhood surrounding the Thu Duc steel plant and the Ha Tien cement factory in Thu Duc City.

To reduce the volume of carbon emissions, Tran Van Bay, deputy director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that the department is adopting the municipal People’s Committee’s directive on cooperation with Osaka City as part of a memorandum of understanding on low-carbon city development program for the 2021-25 period.

Vu Thuy Linh, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, shared that in the near future, the city, with support from Osaka City, will employ solutions to reduce carbon emissions, including continuously monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, creating a plan to realize the Paris Agreement on climate change, and studying and adopting greenhouse gas emissions management solutions.

Many projects meant to help Ho Chi Minh City reach its environmental goals are currently underway, including an initiative to employ vehicle speed measurement systems; boosting the construction of green hospitals; saving energy at hotels, trade centers, and factories by using LED lighting systems; and installing solar power systems at trade centers and high-capacity amorphous transformers in power distribution networks.

Fostering further cooperation

A representative of the Osaka Environment Bureau said that through 2022, Vietnam has sponsored 40 projects aimed at boosting low-carbon city development.

Projects discharging a low carbon emissions volume have been launched in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, helping reduce carbon dioxide by over 223,000 metric tons in its nine years of cooperation with Osaka.

Under the framework of the low-carbon city development program, Osaka and cities in Vietnam will prioritize cooperation in energy, transport, industry, and waste treatment.

Within the energy sector, the two cities expect to see a shift to clean and renewable energy and the assurance of energy security.

In the transport sector, enhancing the control of emissions from vehicles, developing electric vehicles, and prioritizing public transport systems are needed.

In industry, cities need to control the greenhouse gas emissions from industrial manufacturing factories in their precincts, apply clean and advanced technology in industrial production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ensure energy security, and upgrade power infrastructure facilities.

For urban waste treatment, it is a must to invest in modern technology to head toward waste-to-energy projects, minimize solid waste at source, and limit the waste burial to save land. 

According to a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in the action plan in response to climate change in 2021-30 with a vision to 2050, the city has set a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent by 2030.

With international support and collaboration, the rate is expected to increase to 30 percent.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!