Ha Noi, Viet Nam  - Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Viet Nam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS), on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD),  launched the report “Sustainability of biogas and cassava-based ethanol value chains in Viet Nam, results and recommendations from the implementation of the Global Bioenergy Partnership indicators”.

This report presents results of a two-year FAO project “Building capacity for enhancing bioenergy sustainability through use of Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) indicators” in Viet Nam, funded by the International Climate Initiative of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and executed under VAAS leadership on behalf of MARD. Participants at the launch included representatives from MARD, FAO Headquarters and FAO Viet Nam, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ha Noi, VAAS, Institute for Agricultural Environment, Ha Noi University of Science and Technology and the Asian Institute of Technology.

The project strengthened Viet Nam’s capacity to monitor the environmental, social and economic impacts of its bioenergy sector, through implementation of GBEP Sustainability indicators for bioenergy and related technical support. By identifying two priority bioenergy pathways – biogas and cassava-based ethanol – and analyzing their environmental, social and economic impacts, the project provided recommendations on how to improve their sustainability, efficiency and competitiveness. This will translate into increased contributions to climate change mitigation, energy diversity and income generation. Furthermore, the project established a multi-stakeholder working group with 50 stakeholders from public and private sectors, thus setting the basis for constitution of a national platform for long-term monitoring of bioenergy sustainability.

“The project provided Viet Nam with an understanding of how to establish the means of a long-term, periodic monitoring of its domestic bioenergy sector based on the GBEP indicators. Such periodic monitoring will enhance the knowledge and understanding of this sector and more generally of the way in which the contribution of the agricultural and energy sectors to national sustainable development can be evaluated. The implementation of the GBEP indicators in Viet Nam also provided a series of lessons learnt about how to apply them as a tool for sustainable development and how to enhance their practicality,” said Dr. Maria Michela Morese, FAO Officer from Headquarters

Among its main recommendations, the project highlighted how the establishment of a long-term framework for monitoring of bioenergy sustainability could enable the assessment of contributions from modern bioenergy to climate change mitigation and sustainable development and thus to the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions and the Sustainable Development Goals. This monitoring could also provide information on the effectiveness of bioenergy support policies and inform possible revisions and adjustments to these policies.

The exchange of good practices, experiences and lessons learnt is fundamental to promote sustainable bioenergy development in Viet Nam. The project, through its multi-stakeholder working group and workshops during its implementation, was able to stimulate fruitful discussions between policy-makers and experts from different countries in Viet Nam and the ASEAN region, also paving the way for possible future cooperation opportunities. Maintaining an active regional dialogue on sustainable bioenergy development issues will be key to exploiting these opportunities.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Dao The Anh, Vice-President of Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) at d[email protected]
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Linh, FAO National Programme Officer at [email protected]