Received: Aug 01, 2025 / Accepted: Feb 11, 2026 / Published: Mar 31, 2026
The carbon market has experienced significant growth, particularly since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Currently, there are 80 active carbon markets worldwide, with a total value exceeding USD 100 billion and covering 28% of the world's total carbon emissions. This trend presents a substantial opportunity for carbon credits in general and Vietnam’s agricultural sectors specifically. This study aimed to provide an overview of the development of the global carbon market and draw lessons learned for the development of the carbon market in Vietnam. Despite having significant carbon credit potential, including 57 million credits from agriculture and 40-70 million credits from forest carbon sequestration, Vietnam's economic benefits from carbon trading are limited due to the lack of a formal carbon trading market. Carbon credits from Vietnam's forests have been traded, primarily through voluntary markets, with transactions and funding largely derived from donors. Developing Vietnam's formal carbon market faces many challenges, including an incomplete legal framework; a lack of methods and standards for measuring, monitoring, and verifying credits; limited production systems that simultaneously generate agricultural products and carbon credits; and insufficient financial resources and specialized human capital throughout the process from production to carbon market transactions. This paper recommends the establishment of a comprehensive carbon market, including a robust legal framework that enables both domestic and international transactions, alongside capacity building and research to develop processes from carbon credit production to market trading.
