There is a cooling conundrum facing the world. The need for air conditioning is rapidly increasing as temperatures rise, especially in the Global South. However, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which can be hundreds to thousands of times more potent than CO2, are used in the majority of cooling systems. Up to 24 Gt CO2e of HFCs and ozone-depleting chemicals (ODS) are thought to be present in equipment globally.
One of the quickest methods to reduce short-term heat is to stop these gases from leaving. But doing so costs money, and until now, reliable cost data has been hard to find.
The Lifecycle Refrigerant Management (LRM) Cost Explorer, a free interactive tool from Cascade Climate, calculates the costs of recovering refrigerant and subsequently reusing, reclaiming, or destroying it. Users can acquire a personalized estimate of upfront and continuing costs by entering their own operational parameters, such as equipment charge sizes, technician wages, transportation distances, and refrigerant prices.
The tool's default values are derived from a year of fieldwork that included trips to warehouses, training facilities, and destruction and reclamation sites in five Southeast Asian countries, as well as interviews with over a dozen participants in the refrigerant reverse supply chain. It currently covers residential air conditioning and commercial HVAC.
The largest expense is recovery. It accounts for more than 90% of the gross cost of default residential AC programs and is the biggest operational expense in every situation. The most important factors are refrigerant yield per unit and time per task. By the time a technician comes, many residential units are leaky and can only support 0.2-0.3 kg.
First are concentrated sources. Business equipment is typically the most economical place to increase capacity because one business HVAC system may store as much refrigerant as hundreds of home splits. High-capacity recovery equipment and take-back programs can close the gap for residential units.
New construction is inferior to existing infrastructure. It costs about USD 200,000 to retrofit a cement or rotary kiln for refrigerant destruction, compared to USD 3.5–5 million for a new facility. When recovery volumes are low, a new reclamation plant, which costs about USD 850,000, is largely idle.
The markets are still in their infancy. Destruction has no direct market value, and recovering gas is more expensive in many Article 5 nations than virgin refrigerant. Closing the gap can be aided by carbon finance, expanded producer responsibility, and increased HFC pricing as the Kigali phase-down tightens.
Equipment sitting dormant after pilot money ran out was one of the most startling observations made in the field. Three factors must cooperate to sustain LRM: revenue models that include operations rather than just equipment, long-term policies that allocate responsibilities and generate demand, and reliable monitoring, reporting, and verification.
Instead of providing a complete financial model, the Explorer provides high-level projections to aid with planning and prioritization. Users are urged to enter local data because Southeast Asia is reflected in the defaults. With the arrival of China and India in 2027, Cascade intends to increase sector coverage, permit alternative end-use paths, and add country analyzes.
Try the tool: https://cascadeclimate.org/our-work/refrigerant-management-and-transition/costs
Source: Cascade Climate, “LRM Costs: Explorer, Research, and Insights”
On 20 October 2026 in Hanoi, the Department of Energy - Oil & Gas (Ministry of Industry and Trade) held the workshop “Consultation on the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund”. At the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, an expert from EEI, presented the objectives, operating principles and proposed roadmap for establishing the Fund.
Mr. Tran Thanh Tung, Acting Director of the Department of Energy - Oil & Gas (Ministry of Industry and Trade), attends the workshop.
Participants included representatives of ministries, sectors and localities, development partners, financial institutions, banks and the business community.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Dang Hai Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Energy - Oil & Gas, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said: against a backdrop of continually rising energy demand for economic development and a volatile global energy market, energy saving and efficiency is increasingly important for the country and for every business. Improving energy efficiency helps ease supply pressure, reduce production and business costs, cut emissions and strengthen the competitiveness of the economy.
Law No. 77/2025/QH15, which amends and supplements a number of articles of the Law on Energy Saving and Efficiency, and Government Decree No. 30/2026/ND-CP have added provisions on the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund (the Fund), creating the legal basis for building a financial support tool for this field.
The Fund is proposed to help remove these barriers. Positioned as a non-profit, off-budget state financial fund, it is expected to connect domestic and international resources and socialized funding, and to combine financial support with technical support, so that businesses have more opportunities to access concessional capital for effective energy-saving solutions.
Mr. Dang Hai Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Energy - Oil & Gas, Ministry of Industry and Trade, delivers the opening remarks at the Consultation Workshop.
“Through this consultation workshop, I hope delegates will openly exchange views on the Fund’s organizational model, operating mechanism and capacity to mobilize resources. Forms of support need to match business needs and link technical support, project preparation and access to finance.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade sincerely listens to and will study the comments received in order to continue finalizing the dossier for establishing the Fund before submitting it to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision. The Ministry hopes to continue receiving the coordination of ministries, sectors, localities, development partners, financial institutions and the business community in the process of establishing and operating the Fund,” Mr. Dang Hai Dung emphasized.
At the workshop, delegates exchanged views and raised questions on matters related to the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, EEI expert
At the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, EEI expert, said that the objective of the “Project to Support the Operationalization of the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund” is to develop a complete, scientifically grounded and practically feasible design that serves as the basis for establishing and operating the Fund. Expected results include stronger readiness to roll out and operate the Fund, a financing mechanism and capital mobilization strategy, and clearly defined beneficiaries and access mechanisms.
Sharing key considerations when establishing and operating the Fund, Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh also stressed that the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund is an off-budget state financial fund operating on a non-profit basis. Its operating principles are socialization, financial independence, no overlap with the state budget, and minimal added cost for businesses. The Fund’s capital consists only of equity, mobilized capital and entrusted capital. Charter capital is allocated from public investment capital, following the public investment plan sequence. The state budget supports charter capital once the Fund meets three conditions, and operating costs are covered by the Fund’s own revenue. Mobilized capital must match repayment capacity, and foreign borrowing follows public debt law. The Fund does not take deposits or issue bank guarantees…
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, the objectives for establishing the Fund are as follows:
First, financial independence, capital mobilization, wholesale lending, investment, support and receiving entrusted funds nationwide;
Second, efficient use of public resources, improving the effectiveness of state budget and grant funding, and promoting public-private cooperation;
Third, helping businesses compete in the green economy and meet CBAM, ETS and the green regulations of the EU, the US and Japan for exports;
Fourth, providing incentive tools, interest subsidies, technical support and market support for energy saving and efficiency projects;
Fifth, promoting technology transition to reduce energy intensity and expanding the energy consulting services (ESCO) market;
Sixth, serving as a policy tool that complements the financial market, neither replacing nor competing with credit institutions.
The Fund’s core functions include: capital mobilization, concessional lending, interest subsidies, technical assistance, market transformation and policy investment.
Recommendations and roadmap: In December 2026, submit to the Prime Minister for approval to establish the Fund under the Ministry of Industry and Trade; issue the Decision (5 articles) and the Regulation (47 articles, 6 chapters), effective 1 January 2027; from 2027 to 2029, assign the Ministry of Finance to allocate charter capital and operating budget, and the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam to appoint officials to the Management Board.
Mr. John Robert Cotton, Director of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership (ETP), speaks online at the workshop.
Speaking online at the workshop, Mr. John Robert Cotton, Director of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership (ETP), stressed the need to build a Fund model that is feasible, meets practical needs and unlocks investment capital for energy-saving projects.
According to him, Law No. 77/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 30/2026/ND-CP have created the legal basis for establishing the Fund. The current focus is on studying the organizational model, governance mechanism, capital mobilization options and suitable financial instruments, so that banks can lend with confidence and businesses can invest in projects that reduce energy consumption and production costs.
Through a technical assistance program running from September 2026 to August 2027, ETP will work with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to assess investment potential and financial barriers, and to propose the Fund’s financial design and operating mechanism. The goal is to provide a basis for the Government to consider and decide on establishing the Fund, aiming to mobilize resources from the state budget, commercial banks, development partners and climate finance.
“The contributions of stakeholders, especially banks and businesses at the workshop, are important in finalizing the Fund’s design, ensuring that the proposed financial mechanisms fit needs and can be implemented effectively in practice,” Mr. John Robert Cotton emphasized.
Mr. Do Manh Toan, National Coordinator, ETP, at the workshop
Sharing international experience and key considerations for operating the Fund, Prof. Dr. Abul Quasem Al-Amin of the Harvard Asia Center, Harvard University, said the Project had reviewed 5 funds in 5 countries: Thailand, India, Bulgaria, Malaysia and Tunisia. Two models were studied in depth: Thailand’s EERF operating model and Malaysia’s GTFS instrument model.
Accordingly, the lessons applicable to Vietnam are: separating technical eligibility, credit decisions and risk support (all five funds); lending through banks, with banks bearing credit risk (Thailand); technical support for audits, project preparation and capacity building (India, Bulgaria, Tunisia); and audited and publicly disclosed financial statements (India, Bulgaria).
Mr. Tran Tien Dong, Financial Institutions Division, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
Sharing BIDV’s experience in managing entrusted lending from funds and projects, Mr. Tran Tien Dong of the Financial Institutions Division, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), said that BIDV has experience implementing and managing entrusted capital from the Government and donors.
On experience serving domestic funds, BIDV is the bank chosen by many ministries, sectors and state agencies to help run off-budget financial funds, including the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund; the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund; the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development; the National Technology Innovation Fund; and the National Data Development Fund…
BIDV’s service orientation for funds includes: receiving and deploying the Fund’s entrusted capital (co-developing mechanisms, receiving funds, appraisal, disbursement, recovery and reporting as regulated); and providing integrated account infrastructure and banking services (opening and managing accounts, currency management, disbursement, recovery, domestic and international payments, digital banking and reporting).
Mr. Tran Viet Nguyen, Deputy Head of the Business Department, Vietnam Electricity (EVN)
Sharing experience in implementing energy-saving investment projects under the ESCO model, Mr. Tran Viet Nguyen, Deputy Head of the Business Department of Vietnam Electricity (EVN), said that EVN’s ESCO operating model is an energy-saving project performance contract. ESCO contract forms include guaranteed-savings contracts and shared-savings contracts.
Alongside the advantages, there are difficulties in implementing ESCO, such as: a lack of legal framework for ESCOs and related regulations (ESCO company operations, methods for determining energy savings, ESCO contract dispute resolution, asset handover, and eligible users of ESCO services); limited communication; financial constraints; capital recovery risk; and ESCO market gaps (solutions, training, expert teams, technical support…).
EVN recommended: establishing the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund; standardizing measurement and verification procedures; independent appraisal/assessment and a published list of qualified ESCOs; accounting guidance for units using the state budget; and the operation of a Vietnam ESCO association.
Overview of the workshop “Consultation on the Energy Efficiency Promotion Fund” in Hanoi.
The workshop gave delegates time to contribute views on the legal framework, international experience, fund management and the implementation of energy-saving projects. The views shared at the workshop are practical references for finalizing the dossier for establishing the Fund.
Source: VNEEP, 20/10/2026.
Image: VNEEP
During the thematic session "Building Circular Business Ecosystem: Lessons Learned from Vietnam and Countries in the Global South" at the World Circular Economy Forum 2026, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam Giang, Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MOIT), addressed delegates attending in Gandhinagar (India) and online participants worldwide.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam Giang, Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Digital Transformation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam
Circular Transition - A Core Pillar for SDGs
Opening her speech, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam Giang highlighted:
"The transition from a linear to a circular economy is taking place robustly, becoming a key pillar in achieving Sustainable Development Goals. For developing nations, including Vietnam, this journey opens up new opportunities alongside significant challenges, especially in the context of deep international integration."
While acknowledging the proactive efforts of Vietnamese enterprises, she noted that key export-oriented manufacturing sectors still face difficulties in aligning with stringent global circularity and sustainability standards.
Policy Frameworks and International Synergies To empower businesses, the Vietnamese Government and MOIT have established comprehensive policy mechanisms:
Issuance of MOIT’s Action Plan for Circular Economy implementation up to 2035.
Implementation of the National Action Plan on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP 2021-2030), National Energy Efficiency Program (2019-2030), and Smart Manufacturing policies.
Execution of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between MOIT Vietnam, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and UNDP, focusing on: (i) Capacity building; (ii) Developing technical guidelines; (iii) Supporting enterprise-level circular model adoption.
Future Strategic Priorities Moving forward, MOIT prioritizes three main lines of action:
Perfecting regulations and technical standards for the circular economy.
Scaling up circular production practices backed by technological innovation, renewable material markets, and eco-labeling.
Strengthening integrated ecosystem linkages across industrial value chains.
EEI’s Role in Advancing Circular Economy With over 23 years of consulting experience, the Environment and Ecology Institute (EEI) remains a key partner supporting MOIT, UNDP, and international donors. EEI has directly spearheaded projects on developing guidelines, standards, and investable business models for SCP and Circular Economy, directly contributing to Vietnam's sustainable development vision.
Watch the full video recording of Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam Giang's speech below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SI90Ygy9vC_mcxXmEQqa49wRbYH9QCjm/view
Fulfilling its member obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Kigali Amendment, Viet Nam is steadily strengthening the lifecycle management of controlled substances, including refrigerants. Alongside this process, the application of digital technologies plays a vital role in enhancing the efficiency of data collection, management, and aggregation to support legal compliance and state governance.
Recently, the Department of Climate Change, in coordination with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), has been researching and testing an electronic solution to support the tracking, management, and reporting of refrigerants.
The RefNEXT electronic application, designed by the Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center (OECC) under the commission of the CCAC, serves as the pilot tool within the framework of this cooperative initiative.
RefNEXT provides advanced capabilities:
Online tracking and management of controlled substances and equipment containing them.
Assistance for organizations and businesses in systematically compiling information to fulfill mandatory reporting obligations under current regulations.
The Department of Climate Change cordially invites interested organizations and enterprises—particularly entities subject to reporting obligations regarding the use of controlled substances under Decree No. 06/2022/NĐ-CP, as amended and supplemented by Decree No. 119/2025/NĐ-CP and Decree No. 83/2026/NĐ-CP—to register for the pilot program.
Participation Form: Voluntary.
Benefits: Free utilization of the RefNEXT tool for two (02) years from the date of registration, coupled with comprehensive technical support throughout the operational phase.
Target Sectors Encouraged to Join: Production, import, and distribution of refrigerants and equipment; air conditioning and refrigeration sectors; installation, maintenance, and repair services; cold storage and cold chains; commercial buildings and facilities utilizing refrigeration equipment.
Insights and feedback gathered from the pilot phase will provide crucial practical data for regulatory bodies to research and refine digital technology solutions in future refrigerant management.
RefNEXT Pilot Registration and Access: https://refnext-vn.genbanext.com/login
Technical Support and Inquiries:
Department of Climate Change - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Mr. Makoto Kato / Ms. Nobuko Kanno)
Source Citation: Official information provided by the Department of Climate Change in collaboration with technical cooperation documents from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the Overseas Environmental Cooperation Center (OECC).
Within the framework under the Viet Nam Scaling Up Energy Efficiency Project (VSUEE), the EEI & SIHUB Consulting Consortium successfully organized two international study tours to strengthen the capacity of state energy management agencies.
Field visit to a designated energy-using facility – Century Engineering Company (South Korea)
Speech at Century Engineering Company (South Korea)
The delegation taking a souvenir photo during the field visit to Century Engineering Company (South Korea)
Field visit to Yonwoo Company – A designated energy-using facility (South Korea)
Energy-using equipment system at Yonwoo Company – South Korea
Speech at Yonwoo Company – South Korea
Key engagements with the Korea Energy Agency (KEA), Korea Industrial Complex Corporation (KICOX) and Korea ESCO Association (KAESCO) focused on carbon-neutral industrial complexes, Factory Energy Management Systems (FEMS), Smart Energy Platforms (SEP), and ESCO market development, complemented by site visits to Century Engineering and Yonwoo.
VSUEE delegation and representatives of the Energy Commission of Malaysia (ST) in Putrajaya, Malaysia
VSUEE delegation during a working session with representatives of the Energy Commission of Malaysia (ST) in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
VSUEE delegation during a working session with representatives of the Energy Commission of Malaysia (ST) in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Field visit to a designated energy-using unit - Ajinomoto Factory (Malaysia)
VSUEE delegation during a field visit to a designated energy-using unit at Ajinomoto Factory in Malaysia, exploring energy efficiency practices in industrial operations
Exploring energy efficiency practices in industrial operations
Working sessions with Suruhanjaya Tenaga (ST), MAESCO and the Malaysia Green Building Council (MGBC) covered the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (EECA), Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), market surveillance mechanisms, green building certification and financing models, with technical visits to the Ajinomoto green factory and Novaco.
Practical insights on legal frameworks, designated energy user management, financial instruments and digital energy platforms will support the refinement of Vietnam’s EE policies and the acceleration of the National Programme on Energy Efficiency and Conservation toward the Net-Zero 2050 target. As the consortium lead, EEI was responsible for overall organization, technical coordination and reporting, and continues to provide technical support for policy development and capacity building under the VSUEE Project.
© 2015 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY INSTITUTE
Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment
Address: 37E Van Mieu, Van Mieu Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Tel: +84383417137 | Fax: +8438231366
Facebook: EEI
Email: eeivietnam@gmail.com
www.eeivn.com
