Ngo Thi To Nhien

Nhien is a Vietnamese government insider. She started her career at the Ministry of Science and Technology, where she developed software systems to assess and manage the risk of natural disasters. 

While still employed by the government, Nhien started working as an energy consultant in 2009. For more than a decade she worked as a consultant on energy projects for the World Bank (where she also worked as staff), the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, UNDP, USAID, as well as for the German and Dutch governments. Many of these projects involved the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the government department responsible for setting the country’s energy policy.

In 2018, Minh Ha Duong, a Nobel Peace Prize-recognized climate scientist, founded VIETSE. Nhien joined as the organization’s Executive Director the following year.

In 2021, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) hired Nhien to conduct a study that aims to imagine a future for Vietnam’s electricity sector without coal. The study, which cost over $200,000, appears to have been instrumental that led to the announcement by Vietnam at COP26 of Net Zero pathway. 

In 2022, Nhien was again contracted by UNOPS to lead a contentious institutional reform project that aims to decarbonize Vietnam’s energy sector. The project sought to assess the potential for decommissioning 26 coal power plants that are owned by three state-owned energy monopolies —PetroVietnam, the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN). The three companies are deeply invested in coal, accounting for over 50% of the total coal-fired power capacity of the country.

In early 2023, after returning to Vietnam from an overseas trip, Nhien allegedly had her passport confiscated. 

At the time of her arrest, Nhien was working on implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a $15.5 billion project funded by the G7 to help Vietnam transition away from fossil fuels.

Nhien’s arrest came at a time of persecution against activists working on Vietnam’s energy transition. Over the past two years, Vietnam’s one-party state has arrested or imprisoned six key leaders of the country’s climate change movement—five on false charges of tax evasion and one—Ngo Thi To Nhien—for allegedly misappropriating government documents. Nguy Thi Khanh, Dang Dinh Bach, Mai Phan Loi, Bach Hung Duong, and Hoang Thi Minh Hong were all imprisoned on false tax evasion charges since 2021.

An investigation by Project88 published in April documented clear evidence that these prosecutions were politically driven and designed to criminalize policy activism.

Although Nhien was charged with buying confidential documents, while other climate activists have been charged with tax evasion, the common thread in these cases is that all of the individuals involved ran organizations that conducted advocacy on energy policy, and all received foreign funding to carry out this work.

After considering the evidence, Project88 found that the Vietnamese government deliberately and arbitrarily applied criminal law to arrest Nhien in an effort to stop her research and advocacy on energy policy and discourage others from working in this field.