VIETNAM

The coal fleet in Vietnam has grown faster than in almost any other country, adding nearly 20,000 megawatts (MW) of its current 28,379 MW of operating coal power capacity since 2015. In May 2023, the official Power Development Plan VIII for 2021-2030 (PDP8) was approved by the Prime Minister. According to the plan, the country will continue increasing its coal-fired capacity to 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

Based on PDP8, Vietnam was led by only China in coal capacity cancellations in 2023 and by only China and India in coal capacity cancellations in 2024. As of June 2026, 60,320 MW of proposed coal capacity has been cancelled in Vietnam since 2010. 550 MW of capacity was presumed to be cancelled in 2025.

However, to align with its December 2022 Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) agreement, all remaining coal-fired power stations not yet in construction must be cancelled as well. As of June 2026, Vietnam has 5,830 MW of pre-construction capacity and a further 2,713 MW under construction. A 2 GW expansion proposal was announced at the Pha Lai Power Complex in mid-2026, the only new coal power capacity proposal in Southeast Asia in the first half of the year.

Vietnam did become the first country to meaningfully advance its JETP, with financing agreements penned for multiple clean energy investment projects and partner countries reiterating their support for the JETP agreement in October 2025. At the UN climate talks in Glasgow in 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced a 2050 net-zero target, and in November 2022, the country submitted an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to increase its emissions reduction target for 2030 from 9% to 15.8%.

New coal projects in Vietnam have struggled to obtain financing, and PDP8 gave proposed projects until June 2024 to either make advancements or be terminated. In December 2023, Vietnam's JETP "Resource Mobilization Plan" reestablished the goals named in PDP8 and outlined coal-to-alternative conversion aspirations, but it did not provide phaseout goals at the plant level. In March 2026, a closure plan for the country’s oldest coal plants was unveiled. Vietnam is moving closer to commissioning its last new coal plant, but concerns about coal’s role in the country’s long-term energy landscape persist.