The deal will further facilitate Australia's exports of coal and liquefied natural gas to Vietnam, the ministry said in a statement, noting that Australia is now a key coal supplier to Vietnam, accounting for 44% of its total coal imports.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) held a conference in Hanoi on February 22 to deploy Vietnam's hydrogen energy development strategy to 2030 with a vision until 2050.

The deal is also intended to support Vietnam’s new target of accelerating the peaking of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 2030 (from 2035 previously) and reducing its peak annual power sector emissions by up to 30%, to 170 MtCO2eq from 240 MtCO2eq.

Under this baseline scenario, coal would remain the largest source of energy in the country until 2030, with 11 new coal-fired power plants to be built, raising the coal-fired power capacity from over 21 GW in 2020 (nearly 24 GW in 2021) to 30 GW in 2025 and over 36 GW in 2030.

The economic committee stressed that nuclear power should be a serious consideration in Vietnam’s power development planning,

The Vietnamese government has agreed to increase the capacity of the Sơn La hydropower plant on the Black River in Ít Ong, Mường La District, Sơn La Province, from 2.4 GW to 3.2 GW.

Japanese manufacturers that use thermal coal for their own power generation have more than a month's worth of stocks, but a few manufacturers have a high dependency on Russian supply, according to the documents.

The draft Power Master Plan VIII expects the installed power capacity in Vietnam to more than double between 2020 (around 70 GW) and 2030, when it should reach 146 GW.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is finalizing the draft power plan VIII, with a target to develop 5,000 MW of offshore wind power by 2030 and about 40,000 MW by 2045.

The rapid reduction of emissions necessary to cope with climate change will have a huge impact on Vietnam’s energy industry, and is possibly closely linked to short-term policies to develop new and renewable energy sources,