Vietnam reviews NDCs for Paris Agreement implementation

During workshop held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), experts from the World Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, GIZ, UNDP and more gave feedback and recommendations for the review and update of Vietnam’s NDC.

The country set up a team for NDC review in November last year. The team, led by Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan, gathers a number of experts and scholars in climate change and governmental officials from ministries and state agencies.

The review and update of the greenhouse gas mitigation component in Vietnam focuses on energy-related policies, industrial and agricultural production, land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) and waste, reported Nguyen Khac Hieu, Deputy Director of the MoNRE’s Climate Change Department. 

Evaluation of data needed for calculating costs and possibility for greenhouse gas mitigation in various areas and the development of scenarios for greenhouse gas mitigation between 2020 and 2030 were also discussed.

Delegates debated Vietnam’s capability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent by 2030 and even achieve a 25 percent cut with international support and identified priority solutions for greenhouse gas mitigation and barriers to take such measures. 

At the event, the review team proposed 45 plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, industry, energy and LULUCF to support a scenario to achieve a cut of more than 299 million tonnes of CO2 from 2020-2030.

In regards to adaption to climate change, the team is working to review the local status of climate change adaption, calculate losses and damage and benefits of integrating climate change adaption and mitigation, and evaluate impacts of Vietnam’s NDC on the country’s socio-economic development.

Hoang Anh, from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and a member of the NDC review team, suggested the NDC include issues like Agriculture 4.0, organic agriculture and aquaculture.

According to Prof. Tran Thuc, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for the National Committee on Climate Change, the NDC is a duty of Vietnam to the international community. Close coordination between ministries and state bodies is vital for the development and implementation of Vietnam’s NDC, he stressed, adding that socio-economic development is Vietnam’s ultimate goal but it must go in tandem with climate change adaption.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan appreciated the recommendations of ministries and international organisations and vowed he will push for better cooperation between the governmental bodies in the NDC review and update.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, is the first legal document that binds each country’s responsibility and commitments, through NDCs, to coping with global climate change. Each country is expected to submit updated NDCs every five years so as to help keep a global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, and make efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieve net zero emissions in the latter half of the century.-VNA