Over the past few years, the perception on climate change by the main policy makers and the leadership in Vietnam has shifted.
Nowadays, climate change is considered one of the most serious challenges facing the country: a Resolution of the 11th National Congress of the Party (adopted in January 2011) stated that climate change will seriously affect Vietnam. This Resolution prioritises responding to climate change for the period 2011 – 2015.
The Government has gradually strengthened the legal framework in climate change, disaster risk reduction, cleaner production and energy.
The National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020 was approved in 2007 and in 2008 the National Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change (NTR-RCC) was issued.
The Government is currently preparing a Green Growth Strategy (GGS), which will encompass low-carbon growth as well as addressing other environmental challenges.
The NTR-RCC aims to determine sectoral and regional impacts that will serve as a basis to develop feasible action plans to effectively respond to climate change in the short and long term.
The action plans will contribute to sustainable development by seizing opportunities to move towards a low-carbon economy and by joining the international community’s efforts in mitigating climate change and protecting the climate system.
The NTP has 50% from donor’s support. The NTP has achieved a number of positive results since implementation started in nearly 2009.
These included the production of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for Vietnam, led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and based on three global emission scenarios; the development of Action Plans, with responses to climate change by five of nine ministries; and the production of provincial Action Plans by six provinces.
Vietnam has also developed effective decision-making mechanism, including a Steering Committee on Climate Change chaired by the Prime Minister, which provides guidance and oversee the implementation of climate change policies and programmes, and an Executive Board for NTP-RCC implementation, which is chaired by the minister of MoNRE. MoNRE is the National Focal Point for the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.
The Climate Change Strategy aims to create a legal frame work for implementing climate change adaption and mitigation. The strategy envisions that: “towards 2100, Vietnam will become a prosperous, civilized, developed country with a low carbon economy, successfully responding to climate change and playing an important role in the region and in the world.”
Its main goals are: to strengthen the adaption capacity of human and natural systems to climate change; to develop a low-carbon economy to protect and enhance the quality of life; to ensure national security and sustainable development in the goal climate change context; and to work actively with the international community to protect the world’s climate system.
The draft Green Growth Strategy(GGS) will provide Vietnam’s voluntary emission reduction targets and will help to transform current development patterns towards sustainable development.
Vietnam perceives green growth as an integral part of sustainable development and the GGS will support the implementation of the Strategic Orientation of Sustainable Development.
This is reflected in the draft goal to 2020, which aims at maintaining economic growth levels while mitigating green house gas emissions, improving the efficiency of use of natural resources, and overseeing a shift in environmental protection towards green and sustainable development.
The draft GGS takes three strategic directions: low-carbon development trajectories; green production and restoring of natural assets; and the stimulation of green lifestyles.
The National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention, Response and Mitigation to 2020 aims to “mobilize all resources to effectively implement disaster prevention, response and mitigation from now up to 2020 in order to minimize the losses of human life and properties, the damage of natural resources and cultural heritages, and the degradation of environment, contributing significantly to ensure the country sustainable development, national defence and security.”