The long-awaited green taxonomy under Decision No. 21/2025/QD-TTg comes into effect on 22 August 2025, just in time for the country during the transitory period of its overhaul of the state systems, the merger of provinces, the elimination of district level, the operation of two-tier local agencies, and legislation.
Although the principles under the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP obligate relevant ministries to draft and propose this taxonomy before 31 December 2022, the devising of it took more than 2 years beyond the planned deadline. It could have been done earlier, however, the emergence of new angles and stories might be glitches.
The adoption of the first-ever green taxonomy of Vietnam marks a new development for fresh funding to get to grips with climate change in the country.
The taxonomy identifies the criteria of sectors and projects qualified for green classification, including renewable powers and energy, transportation, construction/buildings, water resources, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and biodiversity conservation, processing and manufacturing industries, and environmental services. These categories are in compliance with the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, the guiding decrees and likewise in line with international taxonomies (to a certain extent), consistent with sustainable development goals, the Climate Bond Initiative taxonomy or the Green Bond Principles as examples.
In order to be certified as “green”, project owners and green bond issuers are obligated to request verification and certification by either the competent state authorities or independent private licensed organizations.
Those independent private service providers may be conformity assessment service providers or audit firms licensed in Vietnam which satisfy the ISO/IEC 17029:2019, TCVN ISO/IEC 17029:2020 or Vietnamese Standard on Assurance Services 3000 – Assurance Services other than Auditing and Reviewing Historical Financial Information or International Standard on Assurance Services (ISAE 3000) or amended standards issued by competent authorities of Vietnam from time to time.
Upon receipt of the certifications, project owners and green bond issuers must report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment within 30 days and maintain their fulfillment of the conditions set out in the taxonomy.
After this taxonomy, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam will have quite a lot of work which lie ahead to concretize the legal bases and put the green financing and funding up and running.
