Questions about Coal power in a developing country context: Insights from Vietnam

Phasing out unabated coal power to meet climate agreements poses enormous challenges to rapidly developing economies such as Vietnam. Indeed, Vietnam had the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s fastest growth in coal consumption over 2011–2021, at an average rate of 11% per annum (BP, 2022). Coal has been the largest contributor to Vietnam’s electricity production since 2018, reaching about 115 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2020 before declining slightly to 114 TWh in 2021 (BP, 2022). Emissions from all coal use in Vietnam equalled 203 million tonnes carbon dioxide (tCO2) in 2019. This was about 72% of Vietnam’s total CO2 […]