Private sector ‘ignoring’ green technology

The private sector is still largely ignoring the effects of climate change by failing to invest in green technology, experts have said.

GE, a private foreign leading company specialising in developing and inventing environmental protection technology, said that despite the negative impacts of climate change, it was possible to turn adversity into advantage.

GE Viet Nam president Nguyen My Lan, said the company raised investment capital in environmentally friendly technologies to US$1.5 billion last year – up from $750 million in 2005.

The company has invented more than 80 environmentally friendly products, enabling it to increase its revenue rapidly in the last few years.

“Climate change brings about negative impacts but it also motivates firms to create environmentally friendly technologies to serve mankind,” Lan said.

Engineer Ha Trong Dung, who works for a firm that manufactures biological toys, agreed.

Inspired by the thought of rising sea levels and its effects on coastal areas, Dung has designed what he calls modulus houses.

Unlike brick and concrete houses that take several months to erect, modulus homes are made from aluminium and plastic planks. It takes four people just one hour to make a modulus house that can sleep ten people.

Dung said modulus houses could be erected on soft land or flood-prone areas and serve as makeshift classes or storage centres.

“Today, if we cannot find feasible solutions for people in flood-stricken areas, relief efforts such as providing them with instant noodles will turn out to be fruitless and costly,” Dung said.

“New thought – new products” is the message Dung wants to convey to society when coping with climate issues.

Francis A Donovan, USAID mission director who attended the “Knowledge Forum for Viet Nam Innovation Day,” knows that message well.

He said innovation and capital for climate issues required the participation of both the public and private sectors,

“Market mechanisms have also proven to be effective in addressing environmental problems,” he added.

Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank’s country director for Viet Nam, said the private sector had an important role to play in developing green technology to create jobs and protect the environment.

Tran Thuc, director general of the Viet Nam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment, said to mitigate the effects of climate change Viet Nam needed to develop environmentally friendly technology and products that were of high quality and competitively priced.

However, he said Viet Nam was forced to buy environmentally friendly technologies from abroad because the country had not invested in green businesses.

Very few developed countries have agreed to transfer their green technologies to Viet Nam by selling them to public enterprises, he added.

“There is an extremely important role to play by the private sector as developed countries have protected the intellectual property rights of their technologies,” Thuc said.

Nguyen Huu Su, general secretary of the Ha Noi Association for Small – and Medium-sized Enterprises – said few firms had the resources to invest in environmentally friendly technology.

The Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, SIDA, said the private sector in Southeast Asia had paid little attention to climate change compared with public sector and social civil organisations.

A shortage of funds and State incentives such as tax breaks is deterring Viet Nam’s private sector from investing in climate change technologies.

Thuc added the production costs of using environmentally friendly technology were higher than for those that were non-green, which made products uncompetitive.

“They should change their mind before developed countries levy heavy taxes on made-in-Viet Nam commodities that have a high carbon footprint as they were manufactured with old technology,” Thuc said.

Meanwhile, Citi bank has agreed to provide loans for those projects that are developed in a socially responsible manner and according to sound environmental management practices.

“Viet Nam should identify ways to produce goods that are not unfriendly to the environment,” said Brett Kraus, Citi country officer in Viet Nam.

Thuc said the Government had shown a determination to not approve projects that did not take the issue of climate change into account. This meant it would support enterprises friendly to the climate and penalise those that were not, he said.

Viet Nam is working on an action plan to cope with climate change in line with the national “Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change in 2008.”

Steps will then be taken to clearly define which technologies should be given priority to offset the negative effects of climate change.

“We are only in the early stages,” Thuc added.

Viet Nam News

Tags: Vietnam green technology, Vietnam technology