What motivates Vietnam to strive for a low-carbon economy? — On the drivers of climate policy in a developing country

• Recent shift in Vietnam's climate policy from adaptation to mitigation focus
• Climate policy is mainly motivated by multiple policy objectives other than mitigation.
• Mainly: economic restructuring, energy security, and access to finance and technology
• Vulnerability helped to put climate change on political agenda.
• Negative-cost options and co-benefits bear potential for developing countries.

Though climate change is an urgent problem especially for vulnerable developing countries, international negotiations are in a gridlock. Standard game-theoretic models that describe climate change mitigation as a public good problem predict few incentives for individual countries to act. Nevertheless – despite the absence of a globally binding agreement – we can observe some developing countries launching unilateral climate policies. Being one of th\ose, Vietnam has recently announced to strive for a low-carbon economy. Based on interviews with Vietnamese policy makers and other stakeholders, this explorative case study examines Vietnam's motivation for a policy change that has shifted from emphasizing the responsibilities of developed countries for climate change towards accepting responsibility of developing countries to also reduce their emissions. While Vietnam's high vulnerability has contributed to put climate on the political agenda, the policy shift from a pure adaptation towards a mitigation focus was mainly driven by expected multiple climate policy benefits other than climate change abatement (so-called co-benefits). These include restructuring of the economy, addressing energy security concerns and accessing international finance to counteract a phase-out of conventional development assistance. Air quality considerations, by contrast, do not seem to play a major role for Vietnam's shift in climate policy.