Vietnam struggles to break one of world's biggest coal addictions

Despite Vietnam's solar boom and ambitious climate targets, the fast-growing economy is struggling to quit dirty energy -- leaving one of the world's biggest coal power programmes largely intact.

During the COP26 climate summit last year, the government boldly promised to end the construction of new coal plants and phase out the dirtiest of those already running, even as energy demands soar in the manufacturing powerhouse.

The authoritarian communist state has also jailed four green activists this year, including anti-coal campaigner Nguy Thi Khanh, alarming environmentalists who argue it will be even harder for Vietnam to banish dirty energy without them.

After China and India, Vietnam has the world's third-largest pipeline of new coal power projects.

But at COP27 this week, G7 countries could announce billions of dollars in funding to help steer Vietnam away from fossil fuels and the country could attract billions more in clean energy investment as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

The rise of solar energy in the Southeast Asian nation has also been meteoric.

Last year, the country ranked in the top 10 globally for solar energy capacity.

The share of electricity generated by solar saw the biggest rise in the world in 2021, jumping to 10 percent from two percent a year earlier, according to independent energy think tank Ember.