Economic development and population growth have pushed Vietnam’s carbon emissions from 14 million tons in 1980 to 80 millions in 2005, according to a recent World Bank study.

Road transportation emissions made up nearly 92 percent of the emissions in the transport sector, it added.

The paper attributed Vietnam’s rapid growth of carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector to its decreasing transportation energy efficiency.

In fact, Vietnam’s transportation energy efficiency - the ratio of total fuel consumption for transportation in an economy to its gross domestic product - was the second lowest among 12 Southeast Asian countries mentioned in the study.

This is different from countries like China, Malaysia and Thailand, where economic development and population growth have also increased carbon emissions in the transport sector, the paper said.

Titled “Why have CO2 emissions increased in the transport sector in Asia?”, the study was conducted by Govinda R. Timilsina and Ashish Shrestha from the World Bank’s environment and energy research team as part of efforts to study climate change and clean energy issues.

Source: Thanh Nien