Canada supports Vietnam's green transition

On August 21 in Ho Chi Minh City, the Consulate General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with the Canada-ASEAN Business Council organized the Canada-Vietnam Clean Energy Cooperation Forum.

Canada - Vietnam Clean Energy Cooperation Forum. (Source: VNA)

The event aims to connect the private sector of Vietnam and Canada on cooperation in clean energy development, through which Canada can contribute to the JETP (Just Energy Transition Partnership) to help Vietnam achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

Many cooperation solutions in this field between the two countries were introduced by experts at the forum. At the forum, Mr. Ranjith Narayanasamy, Chairman and CEO of the Petrochemical Technology Research Center (PTRC), said that carbon capture, utilization, storage and recycling (CCUS) technology plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing clean energy.

With 22 years of experience, PTRC has implemented many effective CO2 storage projects, typically the Aquistore project at the Boundary Dam thermal power plant (Saskatchewan province, Canada). This is a thermal power plant that has successfully applied CO2 recovery and storage technology. During the plant's operation, CO2 gas is recovered through a pipeline system and stored underground at a depth of 3.4 km. Currently, the total amount of CO2 stored at the project is about 500,000 tons.

In Vietnam, PTRC also participated in a research project to test this technology funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). PTRC participated in consulting on areas with suitable geology for CO2 storage and supporting technology transfer.

However, many delegates who are domestic enterprises also expressed concerns that the development and application of CCUS technologies in Vietnam are still facing many challenges, requiring large-scale testing and piloting steps and high investment capital.

Mr. Micheal Smart, Director of Business Development for Asia-Pacific, Export Development Canada (EDC) said that EDC has specific financial solutions for climate projects. As a state-owned corporation under the Government of Canada, EDC provides loans related to green and sustainable growth. Since 2012, EDC has provided more than 35 billion Canadian dollars for clean technology projects.

According to Boris Jacouty, Director of Business Development and Infrastructure, Canadian Trade Promotion Agency (CCC), CCC supports foreign partners in finding cooperation opportunities with Canadian businesses and benefiting from the Canadian Government's contract performance guarantee mechanism. CCC will sign contracts to guarantee the performance of Canadian businesses' contracts with foreign partners. In the period of 2021-2022, the total value of contracts supported by CCC will reach 6.5 billion USD.

According to the Consulate General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City, the Fair Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) that Vietnam signed with G7 countries; in which, Canada will mobilize 15.5 billion USD in financial resources from the private sector and the government in the next 3 to 5 years to support Vietnam's green transition.

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