Vietnam plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice cultivation alone by 14 per cent by 2030
This was announced at a recent conference in Hanoi by an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Pham Hoang Yen, an expert involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, said that in the last few years, the country has set the goal of a 20 per cent reduction in GHG in the overall cultivation sector by 2020.
The Southeast Asian country has been preparing for National Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) and other policies that developing countries have adopted to control global GHG at a UNFCC conference in Bali eight years ago.
In addition, Vietnam has also carried out a programme of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
In June 2014, the country had 253 CDM projects and had registered 11 programmes of activities. This move earned it 10.7mn certified emission reduction (CEF) credits granted by CDM Executive Board through CDM activities, Yen added.
The total GHG emissions reduction from the 253 CDM projects was 137mn tonnes of CO2equivalent.
In the future, many projects are expected to be started to lower methane emissions in rice cultivation in a number of localities, Yen said.
The agricultural sector also applied Good Agricultural Practices and cultivation methods that economise the use of fertiliser, pesticide and water in order to limit methane emission on rice fields, she said.
According to the 2010 National Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in emissions on both livestock and farm land. In livestock breeding sector, GHG emissions are expected to grow from 18.03mn tonnes of CO2 in 2010 to 24.95mn tonnes in 2020 and 29.32mn tonnes in 2030. In agriculture, GHG emissions are expected to increase from 23.81mn tonnes of CO2 in 2010 to 33.94mn tonnes of CO2 in 2020 and 37.4 tonnes in 2030.
The industrial process had a GHG emission growth, but it was still small compared with the total of emissions, Yen said. It has been predicted that land use, land use change and forestry activities in Vietnam will absorb 42.5mn tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020, and 45.3mn tonnes in 2030 and the main source of emissions and absorption will be forest and cultivated land.
