Viet Nam plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice cultivation alone by 14 per cent by 2030.

This was announced in Ha Noi on Tuesday by an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment at a conference.

Pham Hoang Yen, an expert involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, said in the last few years, the country had chased the goal of a 20 per cent reduction in GHG in the overall cultivation sector by 2020.

What the country has been doing includes preparation for National Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) and other policies developing countries adopted to control global GHG at a UNFCC conference in Bali eight years ago.

In addition, Viet Nam has also carried out a programme of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

In June last year, the country had 253 CDM projects and had registered 11 programmes of activities. This move earned it 10.7 million certified emission reduction (CEF) credits granted by CDM Executive Board through CDM activities, Yen said.

The total GHG emissions reduction from the 253 CDM projects was 137 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Viet Nam ranks fourth in the world in term of the number of CDM projects and ninth in terms of granted CEF certificates.

In the near future, many projects would be started to lower methane emissions in rice cultivation in a number of localities, Yen said.

The agricultural sector also applied Good Agricultural Practices and cultivation methods that economise the use of fertiliser, pesticide and water in order to limit methane emission on rice fields, she said.

According to the 2010 National Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in emissions on both livestock and farm land.

In livestock breeding sector, GHG emissions are expected to grow from 18.03 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2010 to 24.95 million tonnes in 2020 and 29.32 tonnes in 2030.

In agriculture, GHG emissions are expected to increase from 23.81 million tones of carbon dioxide in 2010 to 33.94 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2020 and 37.4 tonnes in 2030.

The industrial process had an GHG emission growth, but it was still small compared with the total of emissions, Yen said.

It is predicted that Land use, Land use Change and Forestry activities in Viet Nam will absorb 42.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020, and 45.3 million tonnes in 2030. The main source of emissions and absorption will be forest and cultivated land.

The workshop was organised by the Research Programme on Climate change, Agriculture and Food Security and its partners.

VNS