Vietnam Plans to Expand Mandatory GHG Inventory List to 2,705 Facilities

Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environmenthas forwarded a draft Prime Ministerial Decision to the Ministry of Justice for legal vetting. If endorsed and issued, the measure would update the national register of sectors and facilities obligated to conduct mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, lifting the total from 2,166 entities under the current 2024 list to 2,705 — a net addition of 539 facilities. Under existing regulations, this register is revised on a two-year cycle.

The current roster, established by Prime Ministerial Decision No. 13/2024/QĐ-TTg (dated 13 August 2024), spans four sectors: 1,805 facilities in industry and trade, 229 in construction, 75 in transport, and 57 in the natural resources and environment sector. The proposed 2026 expansion is grounded in Decree No. 06/2022/NĐ-CP as amended by Decrees No. 119/2025/NĐ-CP and No. 83/2026/NĐ-CP, and draws on updated data submitted by provincial governments following recent ministry mergers. The additions include facilities that already met mandatory thresholds but had been left off earlier lists; the update also corrects names and addresses and removes entities that have shut down or been restructured. Notably, the draft would assign provincial People’s Committees explicit statutory responsibility for verifying and maintaining the accuracy of the facility listings within their jurisdictions — a decentralisation of accountability that was not formalised under the prior decision.

The ministry identified two strategic drivers. First, GHG inventory results will serve as the direct basis for allocating emission allowances to companies entering Vietnam’s domestic carbon market, including the pilot quota-distribution phase planned for 2026–2030. Second, a more complete and accurate inventory strengthens Vietnam’s capacity to honour its international climate commitments, specifically under the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and advances the country’s net-zero-by-2050 target. In submitting the draft, the ministry also acknowledged shortcomings in implementing the 2024 list: reporting by some localities was described as perfunctory, failing to meet required standards for data quality and timeliness.