[Scott Tinker] Nearly every developed country developed on coal.

The U.K., the U.S., Germany, China, and dozens of others used coal to power their industrial revolutions and, later, their electric grids.

And coal still provides much, if not most of their electricity.

Today, many developing nations are following a similar path, juggling the energy benefits of coal with its environmental impacts.

[Asian music] Vietnam is in the midst of a coal revolution.

I went there to get a better understanding of the benefits and challenges for countries developing on coal.

[lively music] [energetic music] There are nearly three billion people today who still live with little or no energy.

And what I want to know is how they'll finally get it.

So this is sort of what it was, and that's the future.

- That's the future.

[both chuckling] - I'm Scott Tinker and I study energy.

Come with me around the world to meet people and communities as they Switch On.

[energetic music] [factory ambience] Vietnam began by developing a manufacturing economy, as many countries have.

My first stop was to visit Viet Than Ho, the CEO of Garco, one of Vietnam's largest clothing makers.

This is amazing.

- Yes.

[Scott] How many people work in your?

[Viet] Seven hundred worker for this factory.

[Scott] Seven hundred.

[Viet] However, under our management group of Garco-10 group, we have 12,000 workers.

- That's just... - And every year, we are making around 30 million units.

- Thirty million units.

- Which are for 66 countries.

- Sixty-six different countries?

- Yeah, in the world.

- I'm feeling a little underdressed with my field shirt.

Do you think I might be able to pick out a new shirt?

- Why not?

Maybe we should go to formal wear.

- Wow.

- Yeah?

So I think this one maybe.

- This one?

- You can try this one.

- I'll try it.

- Yeah, you can try.

- All right.

Ooh.

- You are too big, huh?

- Right from the factory.

- Yeah.

Oh, this fits your body.

- It does?

- Yeah.

- You did good.

[Scott chuckles] A manufacturing economy requires two things, a large population eager for jobs and a lot of energy to help them do their work.

So obviously, we are here in the sewing room.

- Yes.

- What goes on down here?

- So, we have a total of eight production lines here and one production line, more or less, 35 person.

- Thirty-five people on a production line?

- Yeah, one line.

- Eight lines times 35 people.

- Yes.

Every day for eight hour working.

- Eight hour shifts.

- They can make, more or less, 1,000 to 1,100 pieces per day.

When you listen to the machinery running, - Right.

- you can feel the very productivity.

The worker working very skillful, - Yes.

- very hard, and very fast.

- Right.

[Viet] Because a worker here will be paid by piece rate, So the more they do, the more they get.

- Oh, I see.

- So, you can see, you can hear the machines running very fast.

[Scott] Yeah.

With all these machines, you use a lot of electricity.

How much electricity do you use every month, or what's your electric bill?

- Our main production costs?

The first one is salary for the worker.

- Salaries.

- The second one is like fuel, like coal, like oil.

- Oh really?

- And the last one is electricity.

- So if the costs of energy go up, electricity, oil, and coal, your production costs go up.

- Right.

Right.

- Tell me a little bit about the manufacturing in Vietnam.

How many other companies do what you do?

- For last year, garment and textile industry spent 36.1 billion U.S. dollar.

- Thirty-six billion from the garments alone?

- Yeah, for the garment section.

- Wow.

So, manufacturing, in particularly, garments, is really critical to Vietnam's economy.

- Yes.

- Very impressive.

- Thank you very much.

[Asian music] [Scott] Besides people and energy, manufacturing economy requires shipping and ports to bring in raw materials and send out finished goods to the rest of the world... both of which rely on diesel fuel.

I went to one of North Vietnam's largest ports to meet their director.

This is awesome.

- Yes.

- This is called a crane?

- Yeah, crane.

- How many are in your port?

[Director] Totally, we have 14.

- Fourteen?

- Fourteen.

- They're picking one up.

- Yes.

Now, they start loading the cargo on the ship.

[Scott] Tell me a little bit about the people who work here.

How many people work here, and where do they come from?

- We have more than 800.

- Eight hundred people?

- Yeah, people.

[Scott] Does the port run all the time?

[Director] Yeah, all the time.

We have no holiday.

- No holiday?

- Yes.

[Scott] That's a lot of employment.

In terms of Vietnam's economy, how important has the growth in shipping been?

- If we don't have a shipping line, we have no work.

- Right.

- Because the shipping line, they serve all the factory in the north of Vietnam.

[Scott] Let's say if I were to have come here 20 years ago, what would this look like?

- Nothing here.

- Nothing here?

- Yes.

- Twenty years ago?

- Yes.

- I mean, I can't see the end of it when I look that way, and I can't see the end of it when I look that way.

- Yeah.

- This has all been here the last 10 years.

- Yes, 10 years.

- You must use a lot of energy here.

- We have so many equipment here, but before, we used diesel energies.

Now, we mostly, we change to electric.

- Mostly electric?

- Yes.

Like RTGs, now they use electric.

- These are electric?

- Yes.

[Scott] How about the big cranes out on the port?

Are those?

- Yeah, also electric.

- Really?

So they're running on electric motors?

- Yes.

- So obviously, energy prices affect your operation.

If the cost of energy went up a lot, you have a whole different business model.

- Yes.

[upbeat music] [hammer clanking] [Scott] To better understand the country's electricity needs, I went to talk to Binh Van Doan, director of Vietnam's Institute for Energy.

The economy in Vietnam is growing very rapidly.

It's a huge need for electricity.

[speaking Vietnamese] [speaking Vietnamese] [speaking Vietnamese] [speaking Vietnamese] To learn more about how Vietnam will meet its rapidly growing energy demands, I visited Ha Nguyen, the Manager of Clean Air and Energy at Green ID.

There's a lot of construction going on over here.

In fact, there's a big jackhammer down here knocking things down.

- We are standing in front of a building, and this is really kind of typical image of Vietnam now.

With a lot of new construction.

- Electricity is pretty cheap here, isn't it?

- Yes, it is.

- Yeah.

- The government tries to support the people with cheap tariffs.

- Yeah.

- So that more people can use electricity.

- Yeah, so the standard of living-- - Is increasing.

And it's not only for people.

- Yeah.

- It's also for the economy as well, because Vietnam is open for investors coming in.

So cheap electricity price is one of advantage.

- Tell me a little bit about Green ID.

- Green ID, Green Innovation and Development Center, is a local NGO.

We are working to promote sustainable energy development in Vietnam.

In the past until now, hydropower is the main source.

But for now, until 2030, coal will be the main source occurring for 40% in terms of capacity, and more than 50% in terms of electricity generation.

- Why is that?

Why not keep hydro?

- It's just because hydropower potential in Vietnam is just used up.

- Ah, we've built all the dams that could be built.

So you have to have something else.

- Yeah.

I think coal play a very important role so far in our electrification process.

Of course, it provides power for the economy and for people.

For more than 30 years, Vietnam has experience with coal power development.

That means our human resources are familiar with coal.

So it's easier for them to develop them in the future.

[Scott] I went to meet some of these human resources, miners and other coal industry workers and their families who live in the mining towns of North Vietnam and support a large network of businesses and services.

Hanoi journalist, Andy Nguyen, joined me here.

- I was born in this province.

- You were?

- Yeah, in 1976.

And I grew up in a small town, exactly the same as this town, and almost all families there have one, two, or even three members working for coal mines or ports, where they export coal to foreign countries.

My father, my mother, my older brother, my sister-in-law, all of them are working for this industry.

- It's the foundational income, and it just makes the rest of the town work.

- Yes.

The main benefits, the main income, came from coal mine.

- So if coal goes away, a lot of this economy goes away.

- It will be serious issue.

- Yeah.

- Serious issue.

- Yeah.

- I don't know, but it will be tough for the local people.

[Scott] It would be tough.

And not only for the locals in Andy's town and scores of others across North Vietnam, but also for the millions of people and businesses like the garment factory that depend on coal itself.

[gentle music] Andy took me to the mine that supports this town for a closer look.

[speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [mysterious music] ♪ ♪ [train rumbling] [ominous music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Scott] How far, how far do we go?

[Andy] We will travel around two kilometers.

♪ ♪ [Scott] I was amazed by the sheer number of people going down into and coming out of the mine.

Thousands of miners across three shifts keeping the mine working 24 hours a day.

♪ ♪ Pretty dark down there.

We better keep going.

Come a long way in.

We're about 15 meters below sea level now.

About 600 feet.

[Scott] Those are called cleats, coal cleats, - Wow.

That's about as good as it gets.

Pliable.

- The coal here is high quality.

- Yes, it is.

- Very hot.

- Yes it is.

[machine whirring] There it is.

[machine whirring] It's wet, it's a slurry.

Yeah, that's pretty finely ground.

[speaking in Vietnamese] How long has this mine been operating?6 How many years?

[speaking in Vietnamese] - Sixty-eight years.

- Sixty-eight years.

- From the French colony.

- Wow, okay.

- French colony.

- How much does someone who works here make?

What's their income?

[speaking in Vietnamese] - Average more than 10 millions per month.

- Eight hour shifts, it's about two dollars an hour, which would be 50,000 per hour.

So that's a good living.

And that's steady work.

Did your father work in this business?

- Yes.

- Yes, he did.

[speaking in Vietnamese] [Andy] My father, my grandfather also.

- Really?

So, he's third generation.

[speaking in Vietnamese] - For 15 years, from my grandfather, my father, and now, me.

- Yeah, here you are.

Coal mining here and everywhere is hard work and can be dangerous.

But in Vietnam, it's a highly regarded industry that has brought employment to tens of thousands of people.

Coal that won't be used to generate electricity in this region leaves the mines of North Vietnam by a rail network, which passes through the coal towns on the way to the coast.

Here, the coal will be moved from coal yards to barges, all also employing more workers.

[upbeat music] - This is a port where the ships come to transport coal.

- Right.

You can see the coal.

- Yeah.

This is his ship.

- That's your ship?

Bye-Bye.

All right.

Good luck.

[Scott chuckles] [Andy] The coal comes here from different coal mines, and this port's for transporting coal to different provinces.

[Scott] They take it down the coast, back to rivers on the trains, and then to coal plants and make electricity.

[Andy] Yeah, not only coal plants, cement factories.

- Sure.

[Andy] Different kind of factories, - Yeah.

- which need coal.

- Yeah, here's one loaded, and they cover it right down to two feet within the water line.

Isn't that something?

Countries developing on coal will use a lot of it, meaning it's vital to construct and maintain a large and wide ranging coal transportation system like the one they've built here.

♪ ♪ Back in Hanoi, I talked to energy analysts, Ngo To Nhien and An Ha Truong.

- Any governments who want to have energy development, they should balance between the three pillars, energy security, the energy equity, and the environmental sustainability.

- Yeah.

- So we are doing quite well at the moment, but in the future, the energy security might be a little bit threatened because of limited resource.

If we need to import coal, - Yes.

- that could be a real challenge in the future.

[speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [Scott] So this coal, I see, is coming in on the conveyor.

Where does it come from?

- The coal comes from Mao Khe Coal Mine, four kilometers away from here.

- Yeah.

- By the belt system.

Four kilometers- - On a conveyor belt?

[Andy] Yeah, conveyor belt, open conveyor belt.

- Wow.

This new power plant is burning local coal, but they plan to build 50 more just like it, which is what will turn Vietnam into a coal importer.

And there are other challenges.

So where are we now?

- Master control room, the power plant.

[Scott] And so these guys, they're basically measuring what, generators?

- Ash.

- Bottom ash silo.

- Oh, it's the ash?

- Ash.

[Scott] He's looking at the ash?

And this guy is doing something different?

- Feed water system.

- Oh, the water system?

- Water system.

- The cooling system?

So everybody has a different job.

[Andy] Yes.

- Coal has many advantages, but one of the challenges is just the air quality, the particulates and the ash.

So, how do we fix that?

[speaking in Vietnamese] - So we do, we are using limestone powder to burn with coal to reduce the pollution.

- To get the sulfur, yep.

- And the ash.

The second challenge is the ash.

This is a conveyor system to transport ash from the power plant to this area.

- Right.

- To store the ash.

- Is this all ash behind this?

[speaking in Vietnamese] - Twenty hectares here.

- Twenty hectares of ash.

[speaking in Vietnamese] - Around five million cubic meter of ash.

[Scott] Gotcha, five million cubic meters.

[Nguyen] At this moment, not in the past, but at this moment, coal power has more disadvantage than advantages.

We see that coal is a source of environmental pollution, including air pollution, water pollution, and also soil pollution.

- Yeah.

- I had a chance to visit coal power areas.

- Yes.

- And I witness impacts of coal dust in this area.

- Yeah.

- It takes time for people to understand the risk.

- Yes.

- And when they understand the risk, it's too late.

[Scott] I went to a town just downwind from the coal power plant to get their impressions of the local air pollution.

Does everybody you know have electricity?

[speaking in Vietnamese] - Yeah, yes, of course.

[Scott laughing] When I was born, I had electricity.

My family had electricity.

- So, you work in the business, the coal business, which is your life, and that business puts pollution.

Do you see that as a conflict?

- No, she works for a railway company.

- No, but these guys were in coal, and the whole community's based on coal.

But it makes the environment... - Yeah.

- So how do you change that?

[speaking in Vietnamese] There's some ideas here.

What's going on?

- So that's, - Yeah.

- that's not come from the coal mine.

- Yeah.

- It comes from the thermal power plants.

- From the plant?

- Yeah.

[Andy] You see the white dust in the air.

- Right.

In the U.S., on the coal plants, we have scrubbers that scrub this out before it goes up.

- Ah.

[speaking in Vietnamese] - It makes it more expensive.

It makes it more expensive.

[speaking in Vietnamese] What are some of the other challenges in the community?

[speaking in Vietnamese] So you don't want, you don't want coal to go away?

[speaking in Vietnamese] [Scott] If Vietnam wanted to switch from coal, what could they do instead?

I talked to the local experts about electricity alternatives and their challenges.

[speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] What do you think about the public perception?

What do they think about the energy situation here?

- There are some people who have a good knowledge, then they talking about the environment and clean energy.

- Yes.

- But most of the people in Vietnam, they want to have cheap.

- The consumers, they are very sensitive to any change in the price of electricity, for example.

- Yes.

- When the government announced that the electricity price will be increased by eight percent, for example, so people taking up very quickly.

- Right.

Right.

[speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [speaking in Vietnamese] [Scott] So, coal is cheap and local, at least in the beginning, and provides millions of jobs, not just in the coal and power industries, but the many other industries that depend on it.

Coal helps a country lift itself out of poverty and increase the standard of living of its citizens, often by making the affordable products that the rest of the world buys.

But like all benefits, these come at a cost.

Local pollution and the global issue of CO2 emissions.

Because it's cheap and local and established, China, India, Vietnam, and other developing countries, many in Asia, will continue to rely on coal in the coming decades.

If developed countries want to help them reduce their air pollution and CO2 emissions in our one shared atmosphere, we could consider helping them develop on some other energy source.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪