Within the framework of the working program in Japan, on December 16 in Tokyo, Mr. Nguyen Van De - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee - held a working session with Green Carbon Inc, a Japanese enterprise specializing in greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon credit development from agriculture.

Attending the meeting were Mr. Haruki Yokoyama - Head of the International Cooperation Department of Green Carbon Inc, and the delegation from Nghe An province.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van De expressed his gratitude for the reception by Green Carbon Inc and highly valued the collaborative results between the two parties in recent times. He emphasized that Viet Nam committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 at COP26, while the agricultural sector - particularly rice cultivation - remains the largest source of emissions.

Overview of the meeting

With over 90,000 hectares of rice cultivation, Nghe An clearly defines its desire to build an environmentally responsible agricultural sector, making a substantive contribution to the national emission reduction goals.

The project applying Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) techniques in Nghe An over four consecutive seasons (from the 2024 Spring-Summer season to the 2025 Summer-Autumn season) has yielded outstanding results. From an initial point of just over 5,700 hectares in the 2024 Spring-Summer season, the area applying AWD techniques increased to 18,921 hectares by the 2025 Spring-Summer season. Although the 2025 Summer-Autumn season was affected by the merger of communal administrative units, the province still maintained 17,524 hectares of production in accordance with technical procedures.

Monitoring results show that in the 2025 Summer-Autumn season alone, the model reduced emissions by 115,447 tons of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e). Cumulatively over the four seasons, the total amount of emission reduction reached 310,900 tons of CO₂e. AWD technology also helped reduce CH₄ (methane) by 50-60%, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than CO₂.

The Nghe An provincial delegation discussed with representatives of Green Carbon Inc - a Japanese enterprise in the field of greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon credit development from agriculture.

These figures are of great interest to Nghe An province, creating an important premise for the commercialization of agricultural carbon credits. Along with the environmental impact, the project has brought clear economic efficiency: reducing irrigation by 1-2 times per crop, saving 28-35% of water; achieving an actual yield of 5 tons/ha, which is higher than the provincial average; and producing sturdier rice plants with fewer pests and reduced lodging. These results prove that Japan's AWD technology is perfectly suited to the soil conditions and farming expertise of Nghe An farmers.

During the meeting, the Vice Chairman of the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee proposed several strategic cooperation orientations:

First, to continue expanding the scale of AWD application starting from the 2026 Spring crop. Once the communal administrative apparatus is stabilized, Nghe An aims to expand the AWD application area across key rice-growing regions, moving toward standardizing emission reduction processes on a province-wide scale.

Second, to accelerate the process of registration, appraisal, and issuance of carbon credits. This is a matter of particular concern for the province. Nghe An requested Green Carbon to support the completion of carbon credit dossiers according to international standards such as the Gold Standard and to develop appropriate MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) procedures.

Speaking at the session, Mr. Haruki Yokoyama assessed Nghe An as one of the localities with a rapid expansion rate of AWD application. He affirmed that the company will continue to provide technical support and monitoring for project expansion in the coming years. Furthermore, the company is ready to mobilize resources to accelerate the carbon credit appraisal process for Nghe An. In the immediate future, he proposed implementing a project to digitize agricultural land areas linked with ownership information to serve lookup and management tasks, as well as establishing a financial mechanism to ensure that revenue from carbon credits is transferred directly to farmers from rice cultivation.

The discussion marks an important development in the cooperative relationship between Nghe An province and Green Carbon Inc, opening prospects for building an agricultural carbon credit market while contributing to the promotion of Viet Nam-Japan relations in the field of green agricultural innovation and sustainable development.

Source: Nghe An Newspaper (December 16, 2025)