4,300 Vietnamese died prematurely due to coal gas in 2011

It is estimated that this number could be up to 25,000 people per year if new thermoelectric projects are put into operation as planned.

The number of Vietnamese people died when coal increased

"Of the total number of Vietnamese who died prematurely due to air pollution, as many as 4,300 people were identified with emissions from thermal power projects. This is the number of 2011. The impact of the later years is even higher. when the use of coal increased significantly , " said Lauri Myllyvirta, a member of Harvard University's research team, with PV.

This is part of the content published in the latest report on Vietnam that Mr. Myllyvirta and his colleagues presented in the Workshop "Coal - Coal-fired Thermal Power: Unknown Things" on September 29 in Hanoi.

According to Myllyvirta, the total number of premature deaths caused by PM2.5 worldwide in 2010 was 3.2 million, of which 31,000 were in Vietnam. PM2,5 dust is the smallest type of dust in the atmosphere, produced during coal burning.

Harvard's research team predicts that Vietnam 's coal emissions will triple by 2030. About 25,000 people die each year without cutting emissions.

It is expected that the number of premature deaths in Vietnam due to coal gas will be up to 25,000 by 2030 without cutting emissions from coal.(Artwork: Tri Tin).

Mr. Tran Dinh Sinh, Deputy Director of Green Development Center (GreenID) said in the transition of world energy from focusing on exploiting and using fossil fuels to renewable energy, Vietnam There are mixed steps reflected in the fact that Power Plan 7 aims to increase the proportion of coal-fired thermal power to more than 50% by 2030. According to GreenID data, the development of coal-fired thermal power plants will emitting a huge amount of ash which has a significant impact on the environment and public health, estimated at 14.8 million tons per year from 2020 and up to 29.1 million tons per year from 2030.

GreenID's representative leading the national electricity planning for the period 2011-2020 with vision to 2030 (PDP VII) of Vietnam shows that the total generation capacity will reach 75,000 MW by 2020 and 146,800 MW in 2030. To to meet the power source as forecasted by PDP VII, coal-fired thermal power has been chosen by policy makers as the main power supply because this type of energy source has a large capacity and medium capacity. A unit of a unit is 300-600 MW with an annual operating time of up to 6,500-7,000 hours. Vietnam has planned 57 coal-fired power plants with many different sources of investment capital.

Research by GreenID (2014) has shown, in the period of 2010-2013, power generation capacity of coal-fired thermal power in the total supply structure of Vietnam increased continuously from 18.29% to 22.5%.

Another study of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said Vietnam's coal in 2010 accounted for 20% of the total emissions of 264 million tons of CO2 equivalent. This figure is projected to increase to 90% of the 515 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2030.

Mr. Myllyvirta recommends that Vietnam should consider air quality issues and assess the health impacts when planning power plants , industries and transportation in Vietnam, so it should make data public. emission levels of the plant from time to time and annually to assess impacts and improve enforcement. At the same time the Government needs to continue to invest in clean energy and need to install better emission management equipment.