As ASEAN Chair in 2010, Vietnam has proposed ASEAN Initiatives and highlighted ASEAN views on climate change at the 16 th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16) in Cancun, Mexico, said a senior environmental official.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha was speaking at a press briefing in Hanoi on Dec. 14 on the results of activities undertaken by the Vietnamese delegation at COP 16 and the sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).
The Vietnamese delegation, led by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat, participated energetically in discussions regarding important issues of the conference.
“ Vietnam demonstrated its proactiveness at sessions, bilateral and multilateral talks with partners and its flexibility in handling several complicated issues,” Ha said.
He said Vietnam submitted its second national report on climate change to the conference, co-chaired with the International Law Organisation a meeting on the making of legal documents on adaption to climate change for developing countries, and organised an exhibition on climate change and sustainable development in the country.
According to Ha, the Vietnamese delegation held 15 bilateral ministerial meetings with those from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the US, the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, and the World Bank.
At these meetings, the Vietnamese officials sought assistance for the country’s efforts to deal with climate change as well as cooperation in the fields of natural resources and environment.
As many as 12,000 delegates, including 5,200 governmental officials from 194 countries, attended COP 16 and CMP 6, which aimed to review the implementation of the convention on climate change and work out solutions and priorities to step up the implementation process of the convention and the Kyoto protocol.