Energizing green cities in Southeast Asia: Application of sustainable urban energy and emissions planning in Vietnam

This paper presents a Sustainable Urban Energy and Emissions Planning (SUEEP) framework to help cities in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region scale-up energy efficiency in urban infrastructure and reduce emissions related to carbon-intensive energy use. The framework follows an integrated approach to long-term urban and energy planning. It uses several analytical tools and provides a step-by-step guideline to cities committed to develop and implement sustainable urban energy and emissions plan. The paper presents the SUEEP concept and results from the first two phases of its application in pilot cities in Southeast Asia. In the first phase, the SUEEP framework was developed and piloted in three cities—Da Nang, Vietnam; Surabaya, Indonesia; and Cebu, the Philippines. These pilots provided essential feedback on key SUEEP features including the importance of energy governance at the municipal level, institutional development needs, baseline diagnostics, and a preliminary list of priority energy efficiency projects. In the second phase, the in-depth SUEEP process was implemented in Da Nang, Vietnam. The paper presents results achieved in Da Nang, where the municipal government developed the green growth energy efficiency plan and the accompanying business plan for the public-private partnership in scaling-up energy efficiency across urban infrastructure. The key findings include: (a) SEA cities can become the global engines of green growth by choosing energy efficient solutions to their infrastructure needs; (b) Municipal governments need to reform institutions, develop energy efficiency governance and build institutional capacity; (c) Cities need to collaborate closely with the national government in the areas that are outside the city’s control; (d) Urban transport and building sectors present the largest opportunities for scaling up energy efficiency; (e) The Energy and Emissions Task Force or a similar institutional platform is essential for productive collaboration among municipal government, stakeholders, private investors, and financing institutions; (f) The green growth scenario in Da Nang for 2010-2030 period suggests that the city can achieve 13% reductions in energy consumption and 23% decline in GHG emissions compared to the “business as usual” baseline; and (g) Priority projects potentially bankable and attractive for private sector investments include: energy efficient LED street lighting, waste treatment, solar PV provision, landfill gas recovery, and a feeder route into the bus rapid transit system.