Vietnam has signed off on a decree that transfers responsibility for approving domestic carbon credit projects and issuing credits to provincial authorities, as the country assembles the administrative backbone of its national carbon market, according to Carbon Pulse. Decree 396/2026/NĐ-CP, signed by Deputy Prime Minister Hồ Quốc Dũng on behalf of the government and published on 26 October 2026, takes effect on 12 December 2026. For project developers, the change redraws the map of where approvals happen: for most domestic offset projects, the first stop will now be the chairman of the provincial People’s Committee where the dossier is filed, not a line ministry in Hanoi.

What Decree 396/2026 Actually Amends

The decree amends Decree 06/2022/NĐ-CP on greenhouse gas mitigation and ozone layer protection, the base regulation of Vietnam’s emerging carbon market, which has already been modified by Decrees 119/2025/NĐ-CP, 83/2026/NĐ-CP and 112/2026/NĐ-CP, according to the government’s official news portal. The core edit rewrites clause 2 of Article 18, which governs account registration on the national registry for greenhouse gas emission quotas and carbon credits, by spelling out which authority issues registry accounts for each class of participant.

Three Tracks to a Registry Account

The new rules create a split architecture. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment keeps the central mandate: it issues registry accounts for facilities allocated emission quotas, for entities joining programs and projects registered under points a and b of clause 1, Article 20a, and for forest carbon projects whose area spans two or more provincial-level jurisdictions, according to the government portal.

Provinces take the rest. For organizations participating in projects under the domestic carbon credit exchange and offset mechanism, the chairman of the provincial People’s Committee that receives the registration dossier issues the registry account and sends confirmation after approving the project registration, according to the Vietnam.vn external information portal. For projects under point c of clause 1, Article 20a, applicants can file in person or by post at the provincial public administration service center, or online via the National Public Service Portal or the national identification app.

The speed obligation is explicit. Within 5 working days of receiving a dossier, the provincial chairman must issue the account and send the information to the applicant, and any refusal must state its reasons, according to the government portal. Identity verification for registry access follows Vietnam’s electronic identification and authentication law.

Forest Carbon Gets Its Own Rulebook

The decree inserts a new clause 10 after clause 9 of Article 20, tying forest carbon to a dedicated framework. Registration, adjustment and cancellation of forest carbon projects, and the issuance of forest carbon credits under the domestic exchange and offset mechanism, follow Decree 180/2026/NĐ-CP of 21 May 2026 on forest carbon sequestration and storage services, according to Vietnam.vn. Large forest projects, those crossing two or more provinces, remain under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, which keeps single-province and multi-province forestry on separate administrative tracks.

The decree also amends several forms in Appendix V and abolishes clause 3 of Article 20a along with older templates.

Transition and Timing

Projects already in the system are protected. Dossiers received by line ministries before 1 August 2026 continue to be processed under the rules in force when they were filed, with no need to resubmit, according to the government portal. The decree enters into force on 12 December 2026, giving provinces just under seven weeks from publication to stand up processing capacity.

Implications for Developers and Buyers

For developers, the immediate operational question is venue. The province where a project is registered now controls the account issuance clock, so filing strategy and provincial administrative capacity become due diligence variables. The 5 working day deadline is short by regional standards, but it transfers delay risk to provincial offices that have not previously processed carbon credit files at scale.

For buyers, decentralization cuts both ways. A local approval track can accelerate project pipelines in provinces that move quickly, while creating divergence in practice across dozens of jurisdictions. Multi-province forest carbon, kept with the ministry, retains a single national counterpart, which may make large landscape projects administratively simpler despite their scale.

What to Watch

  • Provincial readiness ahead of the 12 December 2026 effective date.
  • Whether the 5 working day issuance deadline holds in practice across provinces.
  • Uptake of online filing via the National Public Service Portal and the national identification app.
  • Further amendments to Decree 06/2022/NĐ-CP as the national carbon market framework is completed.