Environment and Ecology Research 10(2): 307-313, 2022 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/eer.2022.100221 Factors Affecting CO 2 Emissions in Vietnam Nguyen Thi Phan Thu 1 , Pham Hong Hanh 1 , Nguyen Van Dinh 2 , Hoang Dinh Luong 3 , Do Thi Minh Hue 1,* 1 Faculty of Development Economics, VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam 2 VNU International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam 3 Ministry of Education and Training, Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam Received January 9, 2022; Revised March 25, 2022; Accepted April 15, 2022 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] Nguyen Thi Phan Thu, Pham Hong Hanh, Nguyen Van Dinh, Hoang Dinh Luong, Do Thi Minh Hue , "Factors Affecting CO 2 Emissions in Vietnam," Environment and Ecology Research, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 307 - 313, 2022. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2022.100221. (b): Nguyen Thi Phan Thu, Pham Hong Hanh, Nguyen Van Dinh, Hoang Dinh Luong, Do Thi Minh Hue (2022). Factors Affecting CO 2 Emissions in Vietnam. Environment and Ecology Research, 10(2), 307 - 313. DOI: 10.13189/eer.2022.100221. Copyright©2022 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract In recent years, the signs and consequences of climate change have become increasingly evident in every continent and country, and are expected to increase in the coming years, posing risks to human health, food security, and global economic development. Therefore, controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the basic cause of climate change, has become a hot issue for all countries, including Vietnam. CO 2 emission is considered one of the main components of greenhouse gases. This paper was conducted to identify factors driving the change in CO 2 emissions in Vietnam based on the extended IPAT model, decomposition method, and OLS regression analysis. The cross-sectional data in the model (including population, GDP per capita, energy intensity, emission intensity) were collected mainly from the World Bank and ourworldindata.org during the period 1986 - 2016. The analysis results show that GDP per capita is the variable that has the most significant influence on the increase in CO 2 , followed by energy intensity and population, while emission intensity is the only factor that contributes to the reduction of CO 2 emissions. Based on these results, the study has proposed a number of policy recommendations to control and cut CO 2 emissions in Vietnam, better orienting future decisions to deal with the threat of climate change. Keywords Air Pollution, IPAT Model, Vietnam, CO 2 Emissions 1. Introduction Air pollution has always been one of the most pressing problems in the world. Today, 91% of the global population currently lives in places where air quality does not meet the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Although the development of science and technology along with the rapid urbanization process has met the needs of people in all aspects, at the same time, the environment is under heavy pressure, especially the environment. Fresh air is gradually becoming scarce due to increasingly severe pollution. Financially, premature deaths from air pollution cost about US$5 trillion in welfare losses worldwide [1]. There are many researchers studying factors affecting air pollution. Harte [2] argued that population growth influences carbon emissions as "multiplier". A 1% increase in population leads to a 2,665% increase in energy consumption [3]. Shahba et al. [4] suggested that a 1% increase in energy consumption will increase carbon emissions from 0.2333% to 0.3501%. Ehrlich and Holdren [5] were the first to argue that population, income, and technology determine emissions. They also considered environmental impact (I) as a product of population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T) in the IPAT model. Pani and Mukhopadhyay [6] used IPAT model with data from 1980-2007 to determine the influence of five factors, namely emission intensity, fuel substitution, energy intensity, income, and population on CO 2 emissions in 10