Low-emission zones drive Vietnam’s green vehicle transition | East Asia Forum
Peer reviewed analysis from world leading experts
Topics
Countries
Explainer
About
Contributors
The Quarterly
Submissions
ECONOMICS
Economy
Debt
Growth
Industry
Inflation
Tariffs
Trade wars
POLITICS
Disinformation
Dynasty
Elections
Leadership
Nationalism
Populism
US-China Rivalry
SOCIETY
Artificial intelligence
Demographics
Gender
Human rights
Inequality
Press Freedom
Surveillance
DIPLOMACY
ASEAN
Belt and Road
BRICS
G7
G20
Soft power
Tourism
SECURITY
AUKUS
Economic security
Five Eyes
Military
South China Sea
Supply chain resilience
Terrorism
ENVIRONMENT
Air pollution and public health
Critical minerals
Climate change
Mining
Plastic pollution
The green economy
Water security
Search all topics
NORTHEAST ASIA
China
Japan
Taiwan
South Korea
North Korea
Mongolia
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Indonesia
Malaysia
Vietnam
Thailand
Myanmar
Cambodia
Singapore
Laos
Philippines
Timor-Leste
Brunei
SOUTH ASIA
India
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Afghanistan
Maldives
Bhutan
OCEANIA
Australia
New Zealand
Fiji
Papua New Guinea
Pacific Islands
CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
WORLD
United States
Russia
Canada
Iran
United Kingdom
Brazil
Search all countries
Disputes in the South China Sea
Asian ageing demographics
AUKUS
FIVE EYES
Indonesia's enduring political dynasties
Press freedoms in the Philippines
The Second Thomas Shoal
US chip export controls
Women’s rights in East Asia
Topics
Countries
Explainer
About
Contributors
The Quarterly
Submissions
Search
Environment
Low-emission zones drive Vietnam’s green vehicle transition
Published: 22 August 2026<br>Reading Time: 5 mins<br>Back
Authors
Viet Dung Trinh<br>Kuehne Logistics University
Back
In Brief
Hanoi’s low-emission zone represents a step toward cleaner urban transport but without a comprehensive policy package, Vietnam’s low-emission zones will merely shift pollution from the cities to the country. Vietnam’s green vehicle transition strategy must encompass emissions testing, resale, scrappage, dismantling and recycling. Manufacturers should help establish take-back and recycling systems, ensuring the green transition addresses not only which vehicles are allowed, but what happens to the vehicles that are disallowed.
Share
Share
Listen to this article
On 1 July 2026, Vietnam began piloting its first low-emission zone (LEZ) in the Hoan Kiem district of Hanoi. The LEZ is a filter rather than a blanket ban, with restrictions by area, time and vehicle type, eventually encompassing all of Ring Road 1 by 2028.
The introduction of LEZs in Hanoi is part of a broader green vehicle campaign in Vietnam. In 2024, Hanoi’s annual fine particulate concentration was measured at nine times the World Health Organization’s guidelines and source apportionment studies identify road transport as a substantial local contributor.
The first phase of the LEZ in Hanoi is modest and partly intended as an initial step, so immediate effects are likely to be small. But the adopted schedule does move towards enforceable emissions thresholds, wider coverage and increased support for public transport from 2027, though its significance will ultimately depend on enforcement. An LEZ is a spatial instrument for cutting exposure where traffic and people concentrate, not a substitute for better public transport, cleaner power or vehicle taxation.
Public debate has so far focused on the Hanoi LEZ’s boundary. But the greater problem, which has received much less attention, is the question of what happens to a non-compliant vehicle. International experience suggests that vehicles rarely disappear and are instead likely to be exported elsewhere. The UN Environment Programme counted some 14 million used light-duty vehicles exported from Europe, Japan and the United States between 2015 and 2018, most of which were bound for low- and middle-income countries because they no longer met the exporting country’s standards. Vietnam has long been on the receiving end of such used vehicle exports.
One likely response to the LEZ is that some of the older motorbikes restricted in Hanoi will be sold into provinces without emission zones, where a running bike is a good bike. Air inside the LEZ may become cleaner, but emissions are being displaced rather than eliminated.
A vehicle barred from one district is not necessarily an end-of-life vehicle in the Vietnamese context. Most will continue to be used, repaired or sold. The policy question is not how to scrap every affected motorcycle, but how to distinguish productive second use from the continued circulation of high emitters and how to institute a formal system for discarding used vehicles when reuse no longer makes environmental or economic sense.
Markets will reallocate much of this value on their own. The case for policy rests on what prices...