Carbon credits are being priced at $20.

At the seminar "Carbon credits and human resources for the carbon credit market", on the morning of August 16, Mr. Le Hoang The - Director of VOS Harvest Microbial Forestry Company Limited said that people need to change their thinking about carbon (CO2), must consider it as a "friend", a sustainable, long-term source of money.

According to him, carbon is the element that is associated with and forms life on earth. Starting from the synthesis of carbon in green plants, the expert said, carbon exists in many forms, possibly in plants, or underground before being released into the air.

“Carbon does not disappear, but only changes from one form to another,” Mr. The emphasized, saying that the current problem is to turn this into income, contributing to stabilizing people's lives and livelihoods.

Prof. Dr. Vo Xuan Vinh, Director of the Institute of Business Research, assessed that our country's agricultural sector has a great advantage in participating in the domestic and foreign carbon markets. In recent times, the agricultural sector has been at the forefront of selling carbon credits.

He cited that in 2023, Vietnam successfully "sold" 10.3 million forest carbon credits for the first time through the World Bank at a price of 5 USD/ton, earning 51.5 million USD (about 1,250 billion VND).

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The Mekong Delta is piloting a project to grow 1 million hectares of high-quality rice and reduce emissions. Photo: Ho Hai

Therefore, he hopes that Vietnam will actively participate in the global market, aiming to sell an additional 5 million credits this year and next year, bringing the total amount of carbon sold to 25 million credits. Accordingly, forest carbon absorption and storage services will be one of Vietnam's advantages in the coming period.

Dr. Tran Minh Hai - Vice Principal of the School of Public Policy and Agricultural Development in the Mekong Delta said: The Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) in coordination with the Institute of Agricultural Environment is developing a plan to establish and complete a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system to move towards selling rice carbon credits.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is also working with the Transition Carbon Finance Fund (TCAF) to price carbon credits at $20 per credit. If farmers fully comply with the procedures, they can reduce emissions by 30%, equivalent to reducing 2 carbon credits, bringing economic benefits of VND960,000.

However, he also noted that the project’s greatest economic benefit lies not only in selling carbon credits but also in reducing input costs through more efficient production processes. In addition, branding of emission-reducing rice and reorganizing production on a large scale also brings significant surplus value.

“But if we don’t collect carbon credits, we will lose money, not make a profit,” Hai said. However, he also warned that it is important not to participate in the carbon market in the rice sector at all costs. Instead, it is necessary to focus on implementing proper and sustainable production processes, ensuring long-term benefits for both farmers and the agricultural economy.

"Human resources are needed to be able to implement and manage new production processes, understand and effectively apply technical measures to optimize the ability to absorb and reduce carbon emissions in agriculture," he affirmed. Because, in the rice sector, human resources need skills to create records, record production diaries, and track carbon footprints. In addition, they need to know how to collect pesticide waste, measure water levels, monitor warehouses and rice drying kilns, etc.

Human resources needed to participate in the carbon credit market

Dr. Tran Dai Nghia, Head of the Department of Finance, Economics and Natural Resources and Environment, said that in order to sell carbon credits voluntarily, each country must create a surplus of carbon exceeding the NDC - each country's voluntary commitment.

However, the important issue in participating in the carbon credit market is to be able to price carbon. There are 3 evaluation systems internationally, but in Vietnam, only 2 can be used, which are the quota trading system and the carbon credit mechanism.

Vietnam mainly participates in the voluntary carbon market. This is the easiest form to participate in, but there will be a time limit for assessment. If the time limit is exceeded, the system will automatically return the carbon credit to 0. Regarding the compulsory market, our country cannot participate at present.

It is expected that in 2025, Vietnam will pilot the establishment of a carbon credit trading platform. Therefore, Dr. Le Hoang The believes that the urgent task now is to train a professional broker force to participate in carbon trading.

On that basis, he suggested that businesses wishing to participate in the carbon credit market need to prepare knowledgeable human resources for inventory, declaration and carbon-related issues.

Prof. Dr. Vo Xuan Vinh added, “If we want green development, people must be the focus”. To transform and participate in the carbon market, it requires the participation of many components as well as strategies from diplomacy, climate to technology.

On that basis, train and improve the qualifications of human resources and experts to systematically carry out the steps from measurement, reporting to appraisal. At the same time, agencies and units need to promote and raise public awareness.

In addition to training programs, training and research institutes also need to try to participate in the international training network on carbon credits, with the goal of sharing with the Government in implementing policies, commitments and green growth roadmaps, Mr. Vinh said.

Vietnam has 57 million forest carbon credits, what is a reasonable price to sell them? In the forestry sector alone, Vietnam has 57 million carbon credits, equivalent to 52 million tons of CO2, that can be sold to international organizations. If we optimistically count the “golden forests and silver seas”, Vietnam has about 5 billion carbon credits.