Ricardo-AEA helps deliver greenhouse gas inventory training for Vietnamese government

Technical directors from Vietnam’s Ministry of National Resources and Environment (MONRE) visited Ricardo-AEA in October to attend the first in a series of three workshops to support the Vietnamese Government’s climate change strategy.

The UK government is providing support to Vietnam to help develop a greenhouse gas inventory (GHGI) and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system that is compliant with international standards, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The training is being delivered by leading experts from global sustainability consultancy, Ricardo-AEA, with funding from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The first workshop was provided by Ricardo-AEA’s experts, including Dr John Watterson, lead author of one of the chapters in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s GHGI Guidelines. The workshops delivered insights into the UK inventory process, covering the technical aspects of inventory development such as quality control processes, data handling and uncertainty assessments. Other topics also included MRV systems and international climate negotiations.

Delegates gained an in-depth understanding of UK inventory procedures and discussed how this knowledge sharing could be used in Vietnam in the implementation of their emissions inventory, including establishing policy frameworks, data collection systems and quality assurance and control. Guidance was also provided on establishing MRV systems, and engagement with wider international climate change activities.

Dr Rose Bailey, Ricardo-AEA’s project lead, commented “We’ve been delighted to be able to present Ricardo-AEA’s expertise and experience to the Vietnamese government through the workshops. These activities will help to develop an appropriate and effective GHGI and contribute to Vietnam’s climate change strategy by helping identify which sectors need to be targeted to limit future growth in emissions.”

Following the completion of the UK workshop, Ricardo-AEA will continue its GHGI support and capacity development activities with the Vietnamese Government. This will comprise of two in-country knowledge transfer events, providing further training and stakeholder engagement by Ricardo-AEA’s GHGI and MRV experts. These capacity building activities will ensure that GHGI expertise is created and retained in-country, and that a robust and sustainable inventory system is created for the longer term.