I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam.
I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC.
I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam.
I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation.
I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University.
I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University.
My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/.
I play table tennis as a hobby.
Mặc dù Đảng và Nhà nước chủ trương xóa bỏ độc quyền đối với ngành điện, và Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam (EVN) không còn độc quyền sản xuất điện, nhưng người dân và doanh nghiệp hiện chỉ có một lựa chọn duy nhất là mua điện của EVN. Thế độc quyền đó có thể thay đổi không, và sẽ thay đổi như thế nào?
Lộ trình tiến tới thị trường bán lẻ điện cạnh tranh
Xóa độc quyền trong ngành điện được tính đến từ hơn 10 năm trước theo 3 cấp độ: thị trường phát điện cạnh tranh, thị trường bán buôn điện cạnh tranh và thị trường bán lẻ điện cạnh tranh. Từ năm 2012, thị trường phát điện cạnh tranh chính thức vận hành với 32 nhà máy tham gia. Đến năm 2020, số đơn vị tham gia đã có hơn 100 nhà máy. Đến nay, EVN không còn độc quyền phát điện, chỉ sở hữu 37%, các doanh nghiệp tư nhân sở hữu 42%, còn lại do các doanh nghiệp nhà nước khác, các dự án BOT nắm giữ và một tỷ lệ nhỏ khoảng 1% là điện nhập khẩu.
The cooling sector is a major source of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
People shop for air conditioners at an electronics supermarket in the northern province of Hưng Yên.—VNA/VNS Photo Phạm Kiên
Việt Nam is recommended to regulate minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) for air conditioners’ seasonal energy efficiency ratio, chillers, variable refrigerant flow, and cars’ mobile air-conditioning systems in the country’s National Green Cooling Programme.
Besides, the country should also switch to greener refrigerants such as R290 or R717, enforce and comply with policies through robust monitoring and verification, Anant Shukla, expert of the Consultancy Consortium, said at a consultation workshop held on Tuesday in Hà Nội.
The workshop was co-organised by the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership to provide technical assistance for the project “In-depth study and survey to develop the National Green Cooling Programme”.
Ba dự án thủy điện bậc thang Đắk R’lấp 1, Đắk R’lấp 2, Đắk R’lấp 3 trên sông Đồng Nai được Bộ Công Thương đưa vào Quy hoạch Điện VIII khiến nhiều người lo ngại hàng trăm hecta vùng lõi Vườn Quốc gia (VQG) Cát Tiên và rừng phòng hộ Nam Cát Tiên sẽ biến mất.
Theo hồ sơ đề nghị bổ sung quy hoạch của Công ty CP Đầu tư – Phát triển năng lượng sạch Tây Nguyên (doanh nghiệp đề xuất), vị trí 3 dự án thủy điện Đắk R’lấp 1, 2, 3 nằm chủ yếu trong phân khu bảo vệ nghiêm ngặt của rừng đặc dụng VQG Cát Tiên (tả ngạn sông Đồng Nai, thuộc tỉnh Lâm Đồng) và rừng phòng hộ Nam Cát Tiên (hữu ngạn sông Đồng Nai, thuộc tỉnh Đắk Nông), chỉ một phần nhỏ ở tỉnh Bình Phước nhưng cũng là đất rừng.
Chưa có số liệu chính thức bao nhiêu hecta rừng sẽ bị ảnh hưởng nếu triển khai 3 dự án thủy điện này. Theo hồ sơ đề xuất của doanh nghiệp đề xuất, diện tích chiếm đất của 3 dự án là 197 ha, trong đó có đến 145 ha rừng. Song, cơ quan chức năng tỉnh Lâm Đồng xác định diện tích chiếm đất của 3 dự án này còn lớn hơn nhiều, ít nhất phải 464 ha.
The call from MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld follows Al Jazeera’s report on the golden passport programme, which has revealed serious security concerns. The investigation also revealed the large number of Russians who procured Cypriot passports – up to 1,000 of them.
A new investigation by ICIJ and 68 media partners exposes the sprawling financial industry that has powered the Putin regime as it dominates its neighbors — and undermines the West.
n 2014, two senior officials of one of the biggest banks in Cyprus, RCB Ltd., visited Constantinos Petrides, a top aide to the country’s president. They weren’t there to talk banking. Instead, according to a Cyprus government investigation, the officials pressed Petrides to approve the citizenship application of a Russian national he said was under sanction by the European Union.
Petrides balked, and the meeting got heated.
“One of them almost accused me of being a traitor and harming relations between Cyprus and Russia because I didn’t want to naturalize a person,” Petrides told the investigators.
By age 18 years, Lalitbai was a married mother of three children. She became a child bride when she was 13 years old. At age 32 years, Lalitbai was a widow and cast out of her extended family. With no money or education, she worked tirelessly as a day labourer, eventually starting her own small bakery. She now speaks openly, with neighbours and in local gatherings, about stopping child marriage. Lalitbai lives in India, the country with the largest number of child brides worldwide.
Yet India is also making progress in reducing child marriage. According to UNICEF’s Is an End to Child Marriage within Reach? Latest Trends and Future Prospects, 2023 Update, released on May 3, 2023, since 2012, the percentage of young women aged 20–24 years who were married as children worldwide has fallen from 23% to 19%, and a substantial portion of this progress is driven by reductions in India.
In the past decade the prevalence of child marriage in this country has declined from 38% to 23%.
HANOI, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Vietnam will have a hard time reaching its offshore wind power target for 2030, a top executive at a state-owned energy company said, with foreign investors also warning of multiple regulatory hurdles that would need to be cleared.
The Southeast Asian country has good offshore wind power potential given strong winds and shallow waters near densely populated areas, according to the World Bank, which estimates the sector could add at least $50 billion to Vietnam’s economy.
Offshore wind is also a priority for Group of Seven (G7) members that have promised funds to boost the country’s renewable energy sources and reduce its reliance on coal.
Laos borrowed billions from President Xi Jinping’s administration to finance railways, highways and hydroelectric dams, which has ballooned public debt to over 100% of GDP.
Combined with a currency crisis and soaring inflation, Laos is on the brink of economic collapse.
Without a clear-cut debt reduction deal with China, Laos’ financial hardships are unlikely to ease, analysts warn. But it remains to be seen if Beijing will agree to long-term concessions.
A pedestrians at a bus station in Vientiane, Laos, on Saturday, June 24, 2023.
Greenhouse gas emissions can be offset by carbon sinks such as forests, but expanding these areas can put Indigenous communities, reliant on the forests, at risk.
Khao Sok rainforest in Thailand. Photo by: Sebastian Kautz / Alamy
From Khao Sok National Park in the southwest to Phu Chi Fa Forest Park in the north, forests cover around 30% of Thailand’s total area. Approximately 23 million people live near or in these lush green landscapes, depending on them for sustenance and livelihoods. But that’s now at risk, due to both climate change-related threats and the policies implemented to protect the forests.
Warangkana Rattanarat, Thailand country director for The Center for People and Forests, warned that the arrival of El Niño earlier this year has caused long droughts and less rain, damaging crops and other forest resources. This has affected the availability of food, as well as the income local people can derive from forest resources, she added.
The country has also experienced floods and the highest temperatures on record this year, impacting forests and the communities within them. In theGermanWatch Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Thailand ranked at number nine globally for long-term climate risks.
Additionally, there are land and tenure rights issues for Indigenous forest communities to contend with, and national climate commitments that have the potential to negatively impact such communities, said experts.
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace group unfurl banners reading ‘Palestinians should be free’ at the base of New York landmark.
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace occupy the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. [Stephanie Keith/Getty Images via AFP]
Published On 7 Nov 20237 Nov 2023
Hundreds of US Jewish activists have peacefully occupied New York’s Statue of Liberty to demand an end to Israel’s “genocidal bombardment” of civilians in Gaza and a ceasefire.
Dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans “Jews demand ceasefire now” or “Not in our name”, the protesters from the Jewish Voice for Peace group on Monday unfurled banners reading “The whole world is watching” and “Palestinians should be free” at the base of New York’s landmark.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of demonstrators, gathered in Washington, DC to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and to denounce US policy of support for Israel.
Dr. Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) working inside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, described the situation on November 11, 2023. “Since this morning, there is no electricity. There is no water. There is no food,” he said. The hospital and the areas outside the hospital where people are sheltering have been hit with bombs. A sniper has wounded patients inside the hospital. Premature babies have died because the incubator cannot function without electricity. “We need help,” he said. “No one hears us.”
Premature babies are dying at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital
Healthcare workers gathered in front of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office in London, raising signs with the names of more than 200 physicians who have been killed so far by Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza.
Doctor who worked in Gaza describes dire situation at Al-Shifa Hospital
Trade unions, youth movements, and Palestine solidarity groups have organized protests and blockades across Europe, opposing the role of their governments in Israel’s genocidal war on PalestiniansNovember 03, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch
Trade unionists of PAME carry out flash protest inside Athens International Airport (Photo: PAME)
As Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated for the fourth week straight, workers across Europe have stepped up their solidarity with Palestine and organized resistance to the supply of arms from various parts of the continent to Israel.
On Thursday, November 2, Greek trade unionists from the All Workers Militant Front (PAME) held a flash protest inside the Athens International Airport in solidarity with Palestine. The protest started in front of the offices of the Israeli airline El Al with protesters then marching inside the airport denouncing the genocidal war against Palestinians.
In their statement, PAME harshly criticized Israeli war crimes in Gaza. “No one can remain silent when the death toll from Israeli bombing in Gaza exceeds 8,000, including over 3000 children and over 1000 women,” PAME said.
“No one can remain silent when a child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes. No one can remain silent when there are more than 15,000 wounded in Gaza without the necessary treatment because of the suffocating blockade by the murderer state of Israel.”
PAME has also demanded that the Greek government stop all economic, political, and military cooperation with Israel. The union called for an end to the facilitation of bases and other infrastructure by Greece to the US, NATO, and Israel.
PAME has also called for the immediate recognition of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Meanwhile, on October 31, transport unions in Belgium including the Belgian Union of Transport Workers (BTB), BBTK, ACV-Transcom, and ACV Puls issued a joint statement announcing their resolve to refuse loading or unloading weapons in transit to Israel, which are destined for the genocidal war against the Palestinians.
In their statement, the trade unions said that while genocide is taking place in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium note the arrival of arms shipments to the conflict zone. Workers’ participation in loading or unloading these weapons “means supporting regimes that kill innocent people,” the statement said.
In the UK, on October 31, activists from Palestine Action blockaded the road to the headquarters of Elbit Systems in Bristol, notorious for manufacturing parts for Israeli drones and other pilotless aircraft.
DKU activist blocading Terma A/S in Soborg (Photo: DKU)
On October 30, in Demark, activists from various anti-war groups including the Communist Youth of Denmark (DKU), blocked all entrances to the Søborg plant of the Danish arms company, Terma, in protest against its sale of weapons and equipment to the Israeli Defense Forces.
According to reports, the Aarhus-based defense contractor supplies Israel with equipment for F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel uses to bomb Gaza. Terma has also been accused of sending arms for the war in Yemen.
During the blockade at Terma, DKU members hung up blood-stained children’s clothes to symbolize the consequences of Terma’s bloody business for civilians in Palestine.
Dagbladet Arbejderen has reported that the protestors have demanded that authorities publish all information about Terma’s activities and disseminate that information in a way that allows the people of Denmark to understand exactly what the company is doing.
They also demanded and end to the manufacturing of weapons parts used by the Israeli military and the termination of their agreements with F35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which supplies the Israeli genocidal apparatus.
As of November 3, the ongoing genocidal war carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, has claimed the lives of more than 9,000 people, wounded more than 30,000 people, and displaced over 1.4 million.
Một vụ phá rừng trái phép với quy mô lớn vừa xảy ra tại huyện Kông Chro, tỉnh Gia Lai. Người dân sở tại đã phá trắng gần 5 ha rừng tự nhiên để lấy đất làm nương rẫy. Vụ việc không chỉ ảnh hưởng đến nguồn lợi lâm sản mà còn gây thiệt hại cho môi trường sinh thái và an ninh trật tự của địa phương.
Những cây gỗ lớn bị đốn hạ. Ảnh: Thanh Tuấn
Theo ghi nhận của cơ quan chức năng, tại Tiểu khu 793 thuộc lâm phần Công ty TNHH Một thành viên Lâm nghiệp Kông H’de, thuộc xã Sró, huyện Kông Chro, 2 khoảnh rừng tự nhiên bị phá trắng, diện tích gần 5 ha, trong đó có khoảng 3 ha diện tích rừng có gỗ.
Kiểm đếm ban đầu, trên 641 cây rừng có đường kính gốc từ 8 cm – 30cm gồm nhiều loại như: Căm xe, bằng lăng, bình linh… bị chặt hạ.
Hàng loạt cây rừng lớn nhỏ bị đốn hạ bằng cưa xăng, gãy đỗ la liệt. Ảnh: Thanh Tuấn
Ông Lê Văn Thuỷ – Giám đốc Công ty TNHH Một thành viên Lâm nghiệp Kông H’de, Gia Lai cho biết: “6, 7 hộ dân dùng cưa xăng, hạ cây rừng rất nhanh. Công ty phát hiện, nhưng chậm can thiệp vì nước lớn, khó qua sông. Tôi là người đứng đầu nên chịu trách nhiệm”.
This Gazan doctor won't let himself feel hate – despite losing 25 members of his family in an Israeli airstrike last week, and the deaths of his daughters 14 years ago. pic.twitter.com/QLbVZOtcik
CVD 