Synthesis Report on Socio-environmental Impacts of Coal and Coal-fired Power Plants in Vietnam

This report shows the impacts of coal mining and coal-based electricity generation on the Vietnamese society and environment. Five impacts categories were examined: water, air and soil pollution, local people's livelihood and health. We studied impacts now and extrapolated according to Vietnam's current Power Development Plan –namely PDP VII revised– which prescribes to expand the coal-fired power capacity from about 10 GW today in 2015 to 55 GW by 2030. Results show that coal mining and coal-based electricity generation have high, unsustainable, local impacts. Our studies found that levels of dust in the air systematically exceeded the legal safe standards. So did the level of heavy metals and other toxic pollutants in the water we studied. We observed resettlement issues which were not solved appropriately, and local job creation promises which were not followed up in action. We assess that by 2030, Vietnam's coal power plants would create 30 million tonnes of coal ash to be disposed. We estimate that the PDP VII entails importing at least 50 million tonnes of coal per year in 2030. This would compromise energy independence, creating national security risks. We argue further that a fivefold expansion of coal power generation capacity is incompatible with the humanity's goal of stabilizing climate change below 2°C of global warming. In conclusion, we propose engineering and public policy recommendations towards the green growth strategy of Vietnam, which would better integrate the country in the world's energy transition towards a low carbon society.