The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held here on Tuesday a workshop titled, "Carbon collection and storage in Vietnam", with participation of domestic and foreign experts and policy- makers to encourage useful measures for carbon collection and storage in Vietnam.

Deputy Country Director of ADB in Vietnam, Andrew J. Head, affirmed that Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, which is forecast to threaten socio-economic development.

In 2010, ADB granted a loan for technical support worth 1.25 billion U.S. dollars to the four countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The amount is used to evaluate the capability of collecting and storing carbon in the power industry, with focus made in power plants operated by oil and gas, and in other industrial facilities, reported the ADB official.

Le Tuan Phong, from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, reported that in 2000 Vietnam discharged about 150.9 million tons of CO2, of which the agricultural sector took the lead accounting for 43 percent, with 65 million tons, followed by the power sector, with 35 percent and 52.7 million tons.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources estimated that by 2020, the power sector would discharge 224 million tons of CO2, and other sectors with about 10 million tons.

In response to climate change and for sustainable development, the technology to collect and store carbon to reduce the greenhouse emission is seen a useful way in many countries, said Phong.

According to APEC's estimation, to meet the need of energy in the future, the member countries, including Vietnam, would face an increasing consumption of fuel, and the CO2 emission in the APEC region would increase by 60 percent during 1999 -2020. Technology to collect and store CO2 under the soil layers will be a potential solution to handle the problem.

APEC also organizes training courses for its members on related issues, aimed at enhancing their capability in evaluating results of carbon collection and storage.

At the forum, domestic and foreign experts exchanged essential issues relating to carbon collection and storage, and discussed ways to apply the technology in the field in Vietnam.