This document aims at reaffirming EU strong support to assist Vietnam in achieving the objectives of the seventh and thirteenth Sustainable Development Goal: "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all (SDG 7)" and "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13)" adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit on September 25th, 2015, as well as the Nationally Determined Contribution of Vietnam submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the so-called Paris Agreement on climate change which entered into force on November 4th, 2016.
Photo: Ngoc Bich
It will allow increased cooperation in the energy sector, in particular in support of Vietnam's commitments to supply sufficiently high-quality energy for socio-development, to diversify energy investments and business models, to develop a competitive energy market and to promote renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
The EU and its 11 member states, through this Joint Declaration, will endeavour to:
a. Further enhance the sector dialogue on energy together with all relevant actors in the sector to contribute to a more sustainable energy sector by promoting efficient, clean and renewable energy available to all citizens.
b. Provide technical assistance to the Vietnamese Government to achieve its objectives enacted in its strategies mentioned here above, to refine its policies, to promote and prepare relevant capacity development projects including to identify innovation needs for the clean energy technologies and provide the technical knowledge transfer between EU and Vietnam, with a particular focus on renewable energy.
c. Help to identify and bring forward potential energy projects that could be financed with the assistance of the development partners, in order to increase the provision of and access of the population to modern and low-carbon energy services.
d. Assist in the development of access to off grid solutions that are contributing to the overall objective of the sector.
e. Promote the mobilisation of the private sector as well as associations and non-governmental organisations in the field of energy through the organisation of business fora, industrial attachment programs, and other strategic capacity building interventions to inform and attract the private sector and financing institutions towards sustainable energy investments in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Government will endeavour to:
a. Provide a regulatory environment that contributes to the development of a sustainable and modern energy sector with a substantial contribution of renewable energy to the generation mix.
b. Lead and coordinate the sector dialogue through program steering on energy ensuring transparency of information related to funding and project preparation in the sector.
c. Continue the process of implementing legislative and regulatory reforms, establishing an appropriate environment to promote private-sector investment in the energy sector while encouraging the phasing-out of market distorting subsidies and subsidies that finance fossil fuels, and supporting economically viable business models.
d. Promote greater transparency in the implementation of public investment programs and a sufficient gestation period for the projects constituting these programs.
e. Promote the use of sustainable energy technologies and efficiency solutions with a view to limiting the negative climate and environment related impacts of energy generation and use./.