Vietnam’s first Goldman Prize winner pushes for energy conservation

Khanh Nguy Thi is an environmental pioneer in Vietnam. She has led her NGO, the Hanoi-based Green Innovation and Development Centre, or GreenID, to the forefront of policy discussions surrounding clean energy development in the country. Her efforts to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal-fired power plants has resulted in both real policy changes and international renown in the form of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize. Khanh spoke with Mongabay by phone from her home in Hanoi and shared more about her work. Mongabay: When did you first get involved in working on the environment? Khanh: I’ve worked on environmental issues for quite a long time. I was involved in coordinating an integrated community development project in 2003, and in that we focused on women’s health and environmental issues in the community. At that time I was more focused on water and sanitation. Then I moved to work with an NGO working on the environment, water and river protection for five years. Since 2011, when I founded GreenID, I’ve been more focused on energy and environmental governance. Khanh Nguy Thi. Photo courtesy Goldman Environmental Prize. Why did you choose to focus on these issues? I saw that there was little, or even no, effort from civil society on the energy sector. It had some NGOs working on hydropower, working on water, but when I had a chance to look at the energy sector I saw that there was a big gap for civil society to be involved, and it has a…

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