How to divest from fossil fuels

Seven European countries, including Germany, France and Britain, will commit on Wednesday to stop public export guarantees for fossil fuel projects, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.

Coal, oil and gas infrastructure have traditionally made up a large share of the portfolios of many countries’ public export finance agencies, which support exports through state-backed financing guarantees and insurance against losses abroad.

Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are the other four countries to back the initiative.

Britain, France and Sweden have already laid out plans to halt export guarantees for the fossil fuel sector while the other countries in the group have yet to decide how fast they will phase out their support.

“We are totally determined to stop all export guarantees financing fossil fuels while taking into account each country’s industrial specifics and the impact on jobs,” Le Maire said.

Speaking before a meeting on Wednesday where the pledge is to be formalised, Le Maire added that he hoped U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration would join the group, which together accounts for 40% of export finance among OECD countries, following an upcoming review of U.S. export finance.

Le Maire also said the seven countries would commit to supporting climate-friendly projects and transparency in their export finance policies.

In March 2019, a research article on materials used in the field of clean energy production by Mr. Nguyen Van Can, a PhD student in Taiwan, and his colleagues was published by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, a prestigious magazine in fuel technology, according to Web of Science in 2019.

Mr. Nguyen Van Can

The research team has been working to develop quantum dots from materials that are eco-friendly, have strong photosensitivity properties and high sensitivity to visible light, namely semiconductors, graphene or carbon-based materials. The application of these in the regeneration of biomass substances derived from plants associated with dehydration reaction to release H2 gas energy is underway. Bio-based plant products such as glucose or table sugar are also used as reactants that will be catalyzed to regenerate smaller derivative products.

The only limitation is that the water electrolysis process requires the presence of metal oxide materials (titanium oxide…), which are strongly ultraviolet light-absorbent. In addition, to boost chemical irreversible reactions of the products on the catalytic surface, some environmentally unfriendly matters must be used, which is likely to cause a greater amount of discharged chemicals after each reaction ends.

Simulation of a photocatalytic reaction under the illumination of sunlight.

“It took us almost three months from the time we sent the manuscript to its acceptance. That Lunar New Year I backed out of returning to Vietnam to finish editing it, as well as to do the experiments and sample analysis requested by the reviewers.

“It’s quite riveting for me how simple the photocatalytic reactions are, you only need graphene quantum dot materials, granulated sugar, water and solar energy to release good H2 gas with high quantum efficiency,” Can said.

According to Can, the results achieved will contribute to the promotion of current studies on photocatalytic to regenerate environmentally friendly biomass materials made into valuable products associated with clean energy production.

One of the research works by Can and his fellows.

This could boost the production of clean energy in lieu of fossil energy in the future.

If the first project mainly focuses on analyzing the structural characteristics of catalytic materials, and introducing applications, the team’s second project has developed a more holistic approach to discover the complex mechanism of chemical responses.

“With the second study, we chose new more complex biomass materials rather than simple ones as previously, and focused on discovering the mechanism of the reaction that occurs between biomass and photocatalytic graphene quantum dots.”

Also as shared by Can, the research requires large investment funding, high-tech equipment, and complex techniques to perform analysis as well as evaluation, which is quite challenging.

Valuable trip

This research contributes to the future production of green energy in lieu of fossil fuels.

Researcher Nguyen Van Can (born in 1989) is currently a member of the Faculty of Mechanical Technology, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry. His life changed when a group of professors from National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) came to work at his University.

“I longed to study abroad. In 2016, I went to Taiwan as a PhD student as I got a scholarship from Cheng Kung University which is in the top 190 in the world for science and technology and one of the top 3 best universities in Taiwan according to US News report ranking.”

The time Mr. Can spent participating in research with professors and group members left him with a treasure trove of knowledge.

Nguyen Van Can and his colleagues in the lab.

Nguyen Van Can and other Vietnamese students in Taiwan.

”I was fortunate to work with senior professor Hsisheng Teng, an expert, an eminent researcher not only in Taiwan but globally in our field. He reminded me to focus more on the quality of the research instead of quantity.

I keep coming back to one thing he taught. Young people live in such a hurry, do things superficially, and don’t   pay attention to details or have a holistic approach.”

Can intends to complete the research publication this year and return to Vietnam to join research groups at Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry.

“If lucky enough, I hope to contribute to levelling up Vietnam’s science in the world rankings. Despite some shortcomings, Vietnam has increased investment in scientific research associated with university curriculum and research centers.”

Ngan Anh

The inaguration of the solar panel system was organised at the Swedish Residence on March 15

Global access to modern and renewable energy and clean fuel is fundamental to meeting several of the challenges currently facing the world, including poverty, food security, climate change, clean water, health, and inclusive economic growth.

“Energy is central to social and economic well-being. Solar energy does not produce any environmental or noise pollution and is one of the cleanest sources of energy. Switching to solar allows you to reduce your use of fossil fuels and increase your energy security. We hope that the event will inspire others to also install solar panels,” said Ann Måwe, Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam at the event.

The photovoltaic rooftop power panel with energy storage at the Swedish Green Residence (10 Dang Thai Mai) is the first of its type in the area. With the total capacity of 18.5kW, it is a hybrid solar power system which generates power in the same way as a common grid-tied solar power system. In addition, it uses special hybrid inverters and batteries to save energy for later use. This ability to store energy enables the system to also operate as a backup power supply during blackout, similar to a UPS system.

“In just 58 days of operation, this hybrid solar power system has produced 1.74MWh. That is equivalent of five trees planted, 600,000 kilogrammes of coal saving, and about 1.73 tonnes of CO2 emissions in a relatively short period of time during winter. We expect that the system is able to produce more power in the summer where sunlight is abundant in the northern part of Vietnam,” said Viet Anh, technical officer of Orient, the service provider for solar installation and maintenance.

Sweden has ranked the first in terms of energy transformation for three consecutive years (2018-2020) by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This means Sweden is a forerunner for transition to a secure, sustainable, affordable, and inclusive future energy system.

Right up till the early 1970s, Sweden depended heavily on oil for energy supply. 75 per cent of energy generated came from oil. After the infamous 1973 oil crisis, Sweden has invested extensively in the search for alternative energy sources. Fast forward to today, Sweden is one of the most forward-thinking countries in the world. It recycles up to 99 per cent of household waste and has one of the lowest per-capita carbon emission among developed nations.

“Our Swedish experience has shown that the fossil-free development pathway is both possible and better. More than half of the energy used in Sweden already comes from renewable energy sources. Sweden has set out to meet 100 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2040. Lowering carbon emissions is key, and Sweden has managed to combine falling emission levels with a growing economy,” continued Ambassador Måwe while stressing that the future lies in low-carbon economies.

As for Vietnam, the country is at a crossroad. Its energy consumption is fast increasing. Critical decisions need to be made urgently concerning the country’s dependency on coal for power generation. Renewable energy is increasingly cost-competitive and has great potential to meet the enormous demand for energy of the country. Despite relatively new initiatives, in 2019 and early 2020, the country witnessed large investments in solar and wind energy with more than 4.5GW of solar power installed. The challenges lie in how Vietnam can push forward to increase its share of renewables and continue investments to upgrade its power grids to enable the sustainable inputs of renewables.

Vietnam has been successful in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in society. As such, Vietnam has the potential to overcome the economic consequences of the pandemic through “building forward” better and in a more sustainable way. Vietnam can be a leader in the region to demonstrate clean, inclusive, and resilient recovery, building on the principles of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7 on Affordable and Clean Energy is a key goal) – and not only because it benefits people and climate, it is also good business.

By Swedish Embassy in Vietnam

Meanwhile, global economic growth is also forecasted to be more optimistic, leading to an expectation about increasing demand for petrol products, having affected the global oil prices in the past time.

The global gasoline prices in the past 15 days were mixed, but the general trend was a slight decrease.

Domestically, the pandemic continues to be controlled well. The activities of production, business, and daily life of the people continue to gradually recover but still encounter many difficulties.

In recent adjustments, to support the production and business activities of enterprises and the daily life of people, and limit the increasing level in fuel prices, the ministries of Industry and Trade and Finance had used the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund at a fairly high level. From March 27 to April 12, the fund spending ranged from VND500 to VND1,900 per liter or kilogram for petroleum products.

From the beginning of the year to now, the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund has continuously been tapped with an appropriation from VND200 to VND2,000 per liter or kilogram on petroleum products.

In this adjustment, if not using the fund, the retail prices for petroleum products will surge by about VND123-VND1,755 per liter or kilogram.

To limit the increase in the retail fuel prices, contributing to stabilizing prices of goods in the market, supporting the life, production, and business activities of people and enterprises that remain difficult due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministries decided not to set up the fuel price stabilization fund for all petroleum products and continue to spend the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund at high levels for all kinds of petroleum products.

This adjustment of gasoline prices continues to contribute to ensuring the implementation of the target to control inflation and stabilize the market from the beginning of this year, supporting people and businesses, and maintain the price difference between bio-fuel E5 RON92 and fossil gasoline RON95 at a reasonable level to encourage the use of biofuel to protect the environment following the policy of the Government.

Accordingly, from 4.30 p.m. on April 12, the retail prices of petrol and oil are adjusted as follows:

E5 RON92 gasoline is not higher than VND17,806 per liter, down VND45 per liter. If not using VND1,800 per liter from the fund, the price would jump VND1,755 per liter to VND19,606 per liter.

RON95 gasoline is not higher than VND18,970 per liter, down VND76 per liter. If not using VND950 per liter from the fund, the price would climb VND874 per liter to VND19,920 per liter.

Diesel oil 0.05S is not higher than VND14,141 per liter, down VND102 per liter. If not using VND250 per liter from the fund, the price would edge up VND148 per liter to VND14,391 per liter.

Kerosene is not higher than VND12,827 per liter, down VND177 per liter. If not using VND300 per liter from the fund, the price would go up VND123 per liter to VND13,127 per liter.

Fuel oil 180CST 3.5S is not higher than VND13,687 per kilogram, down VND70 per kilogram. If not using VND500 per kilogram from the fund, the price would rise VND430 per kilogram to VND14,187 per kilogram.

By Van Phuc – Translated by Gia Bao

EU carbon tax plan compels local suppliers to step up.

The European parliament earlier this month agreed to establish a resolution on the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), with the price mechanism scheduled to apply to certain goods imported from outside the EU, including Vietnam, if these countries are not ambitious enough in regards to climate change.

According to the plan, it would cover the power sector and energy-intensive industrial sectors like cement, steel, aluminium, oil refinery, paper, glass, chemicals, and fertilisers, and many others, which continue to receive substantial free allocations, and represent 94 per cent of EU industrial emissions. Members of the European Parliament stressed that it should be World Trade Organization compatible and not be misused as a tool to enhance protectionism. The plan aims to create global fair play and an incentive for both EU and non-EU industries to decarbonise in line with the objectives found in the Paris Agreement.

The draft mechanism on carbon price will be discussed in the coming months and is projected to come into effect from early 2023.

The EU is considered a strong market for goods from Vietnam since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect in August last year.

Statistics published by the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that in 2020, the total export turnover of goods from Vietnam to this market was $34.8 billion, a decrease of 2.3 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, within the five months since the EVFTA took effect, the export value reached $15.38 billion, up 1.6 per cent on-year.

Vietnam’s group of agricultural and aquatic products such as seafood, rice, and coffee are considered commodities in which companies are quick to seize opportunities to boost exports to the EU market. The shipment of shrimp to the EU, for example, which accounts for 21 per cent of Vietnam’s total shrimp export turnover, was $30 million in the first month of this year, up 16 per cent on-year.

In addition, the EVFTA is expected to fuel the growth of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry by 6-14 per cent by 2030. The steel industry is also expected to be one of the beneficiaries when it is able to expand its export market to Europe.

Barrier to market penetration

However, entire sectors are causing a vast amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In the agricultural sector, estimates show that 45 per cent of total GHG emissions in the sector come from animal breeding. The main sources of such emissions from livestock are methane (25 per cent), CO2 from land use (32 per cent) and nitrous oxide from manure and sludge management (31 per cent).

Elsewhere, a survey by the Department of Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that in order to manufacture 10 million tonnes of steel, factories will emit 21 million tonnes of CO2.

The CO2 emissions in the industry are forecast to reach 122.5 million tonnes by 2025 and increase to 133 million tonnes by 2030, accounting for 17 per cent of the whole country’s total, with use of fossil fuels for production being deemed a major reason.

Experts agree that if manufacturers fail to switch towards greener manufacturing methods, they will lose opportunities to penetrate into the EU market.

Nevertheless, recently more companies in Vietnam have started to pay attention to carbon credits as well as GHGs, implementing specific strategies for reducing emissions.

Vinamilk, whose products are exported to 53 countries and territories including the EU, is fulfilling a solar power system on 12 milk cow breeding farms. To date, five have installed a solar power system with the capacity of 19 million kWh, which will contribute to lowering over 17.3 million kg of CO2 per year. The figure is expected to increase to 62 million kg once the installation of the renewable system is completed. These emissions are equal to the ability of carbon to absorb 3.4 million trees.

Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation is also implementing a programme to decrease carbon emissions. The company measures its carbon footprint periodically to adjust solutions to decrease CO2 emissions, and has replaced trucks using gasoline with electronic vehicles.

According to its financial statement of 2019, the carbon footprint coefficient decreased by 6 per cent on-year, and the carbon footprint coefficient in terms of diesel in particular declined by 75 per cent on-year thanks to using electronic lift trucks. Century Synthetic Fiber is looking for more opportunities to export its products to the EU, thus, this preparation is helping the company realise its ambition.

Meanwhile, Vietnam National Cement Corporation (VICEM) and FLSmidth, a global leader in sustainable technology, are cooperating with each other to issue new solutions to significantly improve the sustainability of the cement sector in Vietnam. The goal is to implement technologies that radically reduce GHG emissions, pioneer solutions for using alternative fuels, and improve air quality.

The move is chance for VICEM to take advantage of sustainable technology to realise its target to reduce emissions of particulate matter, CO2, nitrogen oxide, and sulphur dioxide. Notably, while management of waste is a growing concern in Vietnam, FLSmidth is developing solutions that enable a 100 per cent switch to alternative fuels, which can reduce carbon emissions by about 33 per cent.

However, there are still very few enterprises that are aware of the importance of carbon emission decrease – and some that are aware are not exporters.

According to Dang Hong Hanh, co-founder and managing director of Energy and Environment Consultancy JSC (VNEEC), corporate attention on decreasing carbon emissions remains limited. The substantial parts of the transaction on the carbon credit market come from sellers, which sell carbon credits for manufacturers outside of Vietnam.

“A number of enterprises, which are outsourcing partners of global brands, started to apply solutions to decrease GHG emissions. However, in general a large part of enterprises lack proactive spirit. They just act when being urged, and numerous businesses implement solutions in a perfunctory manner,” Hanh said.

She said that once the carbon tax is implemented, it will indeed create challenges for manufacturers in Vietnam. Besides that, she believed Vietnam is not yet ambitious enough when it comes to its commitments to reducing GHG emissions. Vietnam also has yet to apply a carbon pricing policy, with the country not showing signs to apply a carbon tax in the domestic market before 2030.

Keeping pace with regulation

This is not first time that international requirements on carbon emission has been a barrier for Vietnam, with the garment and textile sector also suffering in this area. The US and European Parliament currently apply regulations on carbon labelling, requiring importers to meet the standard on carbon emission in the production process.

The Vietnamese government has been adjusting regulations to match with such international requirements. In November last year, the National Assembly adopted the revised Law on Environmental Protection, which contains a specific chapter on the implementation of Vietnam’s commitments and the responsibility for implementing the Paris Agreement’s commitments of Nationally Determined Contributions. From this year as a result, manufacturers with large carbon emissions must be held responsible and account for GHG schemes to reduce them.

According to Pham Van Tan, deputy director of the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the declaration on such emissions is a compulsory requirement. “Vietnam will also update the National Strategy on Climate Change approved by the prime minister in 2011. From 2021 onward, Vietnam’s legal accountability on responding to climate change will be mentioned in the updated strategy,” Tan said.

Responding to the impact of the revised law on the business community’s awareness, Hanh told VIR that previously, VNEEC had to make efforts to persuade enterprises that the opportunity to earn money from carbon credits is real. At the time, almost all partners were still suspect of the feasibility of the opportunity.

However, since the revised law came into effect, VNEEC has received attention from numerous businesses that want to study their carbon footprint, the potential for the effort to lower GHG emissions, and opportunities from trading carbon credits.

“Although the cost for the solution to decrease emissions is quite high and it takes a long time to restructure, if businesses directly affected by the carbon tax can develop a strategy to reduce them as soon as possible, the emission intensity per unit can be gradually reduced, leading to lowering investment costs and tax payments later on,” Hanh said.

VIR

Hydrogen burns like natural gas without the carbon dioxide emissions and can be produced by separating water molecules using electricity. This excites engineers pursuing a solution to the variability of solar and wind power as it spreads across electric grids.

They say surplus renewable electricity produced during hours of slack demand can power electrolysis machines to make hydrogen, eventually providing a store of carbon-free energy for dispatch when demand is strongest.
The $65m Okeechobee pilot project will “utilise solar energy that would have otherwise been clipped” to create hydrogen to replace some natural gas, Rebecca Kujawa, chief financial officer at NextEra — which last year briefly overtook ExxonMobil as the most valuable US energy company — has said.

But producing hydrogen, storing it and then using it to generate electricity, a process known as “power-to-gas-to-power,” is inefficient and expensive.

Energy is lost both in breaking the molecular bond between hydrogen and oxygen in water and in burning the resulting hydrogen in turbines. The round trip returns less than 40 per cent of the electricity put in at the start, according to Dharik Mallapragada, research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.

“Using power to make hydrogen to make power is in most cases really dumb, because there are so many losses involved in the cycle,” said Thomas Koch Blank, senior principal at Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think-tank.

Rapid-starting natural gas power turbines have become the go-to generation source for grid operators looking to keep the lights on during heatwaves and winter freezes.

Renewable, or “green” hydrogen could perform the same role but it is not cheap. Even if production costs fell more than two-thirds to $1 a kilogramme, the price in energy terms would be $8 per million British thermal units, three times as costly as benchmark US natural gas, according to Morgan Stanley estimates.

Climate Capital

But with proponents arguing that hydrogen will be indispensable for the world to cut carbon emissions enough to avoid catastrophic climate change, projects are being launched across the US power sector to prove it can work.

Los Angeles, which under California law is required to use 100 per cent carbon-free energy by 2045, will convert a coal-fired plant it operates in Utah, initially to natural gas but then to hydrogen. The power station’s newly ordered turbines will be able to take a 30:70 blend of hydrogen and gas by 2025 and only hydrogen by the 2045 deadline, according to manufacturer Mitsubishi Power.

Mitsubishi and a partner have proposed a nearby facility to store green hydrogen sufficient to generate 150,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, which could supply 5m average US homes for a day.

“Hydrogen is that one technology where you can actually do seasonal storage,” said Paul Schultz of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “All of this amount of over-generation that you potentially have in the spring and the fall can be used when you are renewable resource-poor during the summer and the winter.”

Schultz acknowledged that a hydrogen blend would cost more than natural gas, “but we have an environmental commitment to this”. He said the city had approached the US Department of Energy about securing low-cost federal funds to help finance the project, declining to specify the amount.

Paul Browning, chief executive of Mitsubishi Power Americas, said that while the cost of so-called green hydrogen was expensive compared with natural gas, it was competitive with other forms of electricity storage.

“Keep in mind, what we’re really targeting is renewable power that today is 100 per cent wasted when it gets curtailed,” he said. “We know we can do better than that.”

The need for long-term storage will become more acute if renewables become the lion’s share of the generation mix. Solar and wind do not run all the time, while lithium-ion batteries empty within hours.

It would be possible to achieve a zero-carbon grid without thermal power plants by hugely overbuilding solar, wind and battery facilities, but California could reach its goals consuming far less land and billions fewer dollars by pursuing a path of power to gas, according to a study by Wartsila, a power technology company.

Elsewhere, New York-listed New Fortress Energy has launched a business to make green hydrogen for sale to the power, industrial and transport sectors, along with the less scarce “blue” hydrogen which is made using natural gas.

German utility Uniper hopes to use renewable electricity produced during the most prolific four hours of each day to make hydrogen for storage in underground structures in Hamburg, which were previously used to hold natural gas.

The hydrogen could then be tapped for trading, selling to industrial clients or generating electricity via a “peaker” plant that could supply electricity back to the grid — although the project is dependent on securing government subsidies, according to chief executive Andreas Schierenbeck.

FT Series: Hydrogen — Fantasy or fuel of the future?

The Hydrogen Council, an industry group, said in a 2017 report that 250 to 300 terawatt-hours a year of surplus solar and wind electricity could be converted to hydrogen by 2030, with more than 20 power plants generating a combined 100TWh-200TWh of electricity from clean hydrogen. In comparison, renewables will generate almost 8,000TWh worldwide this year, according to the International Energy Agency.

“The intermittency of renewable energy is a problem; some large storage container is required to smooth out the output from wind and solar, and hydrogen is just that very large container,” said Daryl Wilson, executive director of the Hydrogen Council, whose membership includes some of the most energy intensive companies in the world and oil producers such as Saudi Aramco and BP.

NextEra, which did not respond to requests for comment, is starting small at Okeechobee with a 20MW electrolysis system. A regulatory filing revealed the plant shares a transformer with at least two adjacent solar farms NextEra has constructed.

The company, the largest US utility by market capitalisation, has recently disclosed other ventures, including a $20m installation to create hydrogen with solar power and feed it to a fuel cell to create electricity.

In all, NextEra had about 50 potential green hydrogen projects in the pipeline to serve the power, transportation and industrial sectors, John Ketchum, president of its bulk-power division NextEra Energy Resources, said late last year.

“We see hydrogen as really a long-term solution,” he told analysts, saying that eliminating the last 15 per cent of carbon from electricity supply “gets very expensive to do with batteries, much cheaper and more manageable to do with hydrogen.”

The colours of the hydrogen rainbow

© Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Green hydrogen Made by using clean electricity from renewable energy technologies to electrolyse water (H2O), separating the hydrogen atom within it from its molecular twin oxygen. At present very expensive.

Blue hydrogen Produced using natural gas but with carbon emissions being captured and stored, or reused. Negligible amounts in production due to a lack of capture projects.

Grey hydrogen This is the most common form of hydrogen production. It comes from natural gas via steam methane reformation but without emissions capture.

Brown hydrogen The cheapest way to make hydrogen but also the most environmentally damaging due to the use of thermal coal in the production process.

Turquoise hydrogen Uses a process called methane pyrolysis to produce hydrogen and solid carbon. Not proven at scale. Concerns around methane leakage.