Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR, December 15, 2020. Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI) and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) co-hosted a workshop on “Private Sector Engagement in Climate Change and Green Growth Series: Promotion of Electric Vehicles”. The workshop aimed to raise awareness about electric vehicle development globally and locally as well as to identify the opportunities and barriers for private sector to be more engaged in transitioning to a low-carbon transport development as part of Lao PDR’s climate change commitments.

The workshop was chaired by Ms. Teunchit Alounlasy, Deputy Director General of Department of Climate Change; co-chaired by Mr. Daovone Phachanthavong, vice president of Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with Mr. Christophe Assicot, Deputy Country Representative of GGGI Lao PDR. It was attended by 51 participants, of whom 23 were women, from line ministries, private sector associations and companies, and development partners. This workshop is part of the current Green Climate Fund Readiness project being delivered by GGGI, which focuses on supporting the National Designated Authority (NDA) to operationalize institutional arrangement to move towards a more strategic and programmatic approach including private sector engagement to identify opportunities and challenges. Increasingly, NDA aims to engage private sector in Lao PDR to mobilize resources, knowledge and innovation to address climate change issues especially in relation to the Lao PDR GCF Country Program that identifies priority areas to access the GCF.

Through presentations and panel discussion, the workshop yielded many positive comments and critical points for further discussion. First and foremost, Lao PDR has set a target in several policy documents including its Nationally Determined Contribution (2020 NDC) to achieve 30% of EVs in the national vehicle mix and 500 charging stations across the country by 2030. This presents a clear opportunity

for private sector to be proactively involved. Moreover, Lao PDR has many advantages to promote EVs including low cost and clean domestic renewable energy, increase of younger generations, and a close proximity to China that can provide affordable and good quality electric vehicles. Internationally, new carbon emission reduction trading options under the Paris Agreement as well as other climate finance schemes including the GCF also provides opportunities for funding support in this area. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to address some challenges such as clear mechanism and arrangement to translate the policy goal into actions, more policy incentives to buy EVs apart of import tax exemption, more infrastructure including charging stations, appropriate electricity tariffs, access to finance for both infrastructure developers and EV buyers, more awareness raising campaign to consumers, and education program especially integrating EVs into the technical and vocational education training curriculum to ensure adequate and competent human

resources. The workshop is part of the series on Private Sector Engagement in Climate Change and Green Growth to discuss potential contributions and identify opportunities and barriers for private sector engagement under priority areas in the Lao PDR GCF Country Programme.