350.org and the Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition will host the following panel at Climate Week, New York City:

Event Time: Thursday, September 26th at 1 – 2pm Eastern Time

Event Hosts: 350.org and Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition

Event Location: Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square, New York, NY 10012 and online

Speakers 

Welcome from Obama Leaders Network, representative of Climate Community of Practice, Liangyi Chang, Christian Vanizette

Moderator – Namrata Chowdhary, 350.org Head of Public Engagement

• Guneet Kaur,  Environmental Defender Campaign Coordinator, International Rivers and lead strategist in the Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition

• Gerry Arances, Executive Director, Center for Energy, Ecology and Development

• Meena Jagannath, Director of Global Programs at Movement Law Lab

• Javier Garate, US Policy Advisor at Global Witness

Language: English

Event Type: Public

Location: (HYBRID) In-person at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (between Thomson and Sullivan Sts.) and online:

Livestream link: https://350org.zoom.us/j/94881772863 (Pre-registration is not required)

Themes: Environmental Justice, Finance, Energy

Event Summary: 

In 2022 Vietnam entered into a $15.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with G7 and other countries – a financing framework aimed at helping developing economies decarbonize their energy systems while transitioning to clean energy infrastructure. At the same time, Vietnamese authorities have systematically targeted and imprisoned the country’s leading climate leaders and experts, excluding civil society from the energy transition process. What has happened to the “Just” transition?

Event Description: 

Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are a relatively new intergovernmental financing mechanism aimed at supporting energy transitions in fossil-fuel-dependent developing and emerging economies. This panel will highlight Vietnam’s unjust energy transition within the global context of energy transition financing and the targeting of climate and environmental defenders worldwide.

Experts will highlight key aspects of Vietnam’s JETP, which can be found in more detail in a new report from Vietnam Climate Defender Coalition: The Missing ‘Just’ in Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership.

Financing – The majority of Vietnam’s JETP financing is offered in the form of market rate loans rather than grants. This arguably contradicts the “just” aspect of the JETP by compelling Vietnam to incur significant sovereign debt in order to finance the energy transition. Instead, international funding should be used to relieve the financial burden of the energy transition in developing and emerging economies and transfer it to wealthy nations that have contributed to the climate crisis with disproportionately higher CO2 emissions propelling their growth for decades.

Lack of transparency and accountability – There are multiple frameworks, government agencies, and partner organizations involved in Vietnam’s JETP implementation process; but an overall lack of clarity and coordination and no adequate policy framework dedicated to the “just” aspect of the transition.

False solutions – There is no concrete timeline for phasing out coal in Vietnam’s JETP implementation plan, nor has the Vietnamese government made specific commitments to retiring any of its coal plants. Rather than prioritizing rapid and essential investment in Vietnam’s vast potential for solar and wind energy, the country’s energy plans include proposals to scale up carbon-intensive and environmentally harmful options associated with onerous economic costs, including reliance on imported liquified natural gas (LNG), destructive hydropower expansion and untested plans to convert coal plants to biomass and ammonia co-firing.

Civil society participation – In recent years, six prominent climate leaders in Vietnam have been unjustly arrested and imprisoned on false charges. The arrests have taken place amidst increased crackdowns on independent organizations working on environmental and energy issues in the country. These targeted attacks severely limit–even eliminate–genuine opportunities for consultation with civil society – a fundamental aspect of a “just” transition.

As a guide for a principled and truly just transition, 350.org will present the civil society Principles for a Fair JETP by Recipient Countries. Unfortunately, Vietnamese civil society was not able to give input to their development due to the silencing of climate defenders. However, civil society experts from other JETP recipient countries participate, including South Africa, Indonesia, and Senegal. The principles are: Equity, Transparency, Access to Information, Local Leadership, Gender Responsiveness, Human Rights, Accountability, and Economic, Environmental and Social Justice.

Vietnam’s JETP was established through an agreement between the Vietnamese government and the International Partners Group (IPG) – comprised of the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Denmark and Norway. Additional financing partners for Vietnam include multilateral and national development banks and private financial institutions coordinated by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).