The Government plans to continue adaptation activities to increase resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, heard a conference held yesterday in HCM City.
Speaking at the "Viet Nam's Contribution to A New Global Climate Agreement" conference, Nguyen Khac Hieu, deputy director of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology and Climate Change, said Viet Nam was one of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate change.
The country in recent years has been implementing many programmes on responding to climate change.
It has also been involved in developing a new global climate deal to limit the earth's temperature by the end of the 21st century to no more than two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrialisation period.
To achieve this, the Conference of the Parties (COP19) in Poland in 2013 called on all parties to develop the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC).
Last month, Viet Nam submitted its INDC to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, which said Viet Nam would use its national resources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent a year by 2030.
This would be equal to more than 787 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. The figure could increase to 25 per cent with more international support.
To prepare for the INDC's implementation in Viet Nam, a conference to announce the INDC Report was held on October 12 in Ha Noi.
The Government asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to lead and collaborate with other ministries and agencies to develop Viet Nam's INDC Report.
Ministries, non-governmental organisations, research agencies, representatives of businesses and international development partners made specific contributions to Viet Nam's INDC.
The report has been approved by the Prime Minister and submitted to the Convention Secretariat.
The INDCs of Viet Nam and other countries are important inputs to prepare for negotiations on a new climate deal in the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris at the end of the year.
Viet Nam's INDC provides preliminary information for the country's intended contributions with quantifiably expected greenhouse gas emission reductions and climate change adaptation activities until 2030.
The greenhouse gas emission reduction component consists of conditional and unconditional contributions in comparison to a "business-as-usual" scenario.
Unconditional contributions are activities implemented with national resources, while conditional contributions are those implemented with financial, technological, and capacity-building support from the international community.
Viet Nam's biggest contribution to mitigating emissions will focus on major areas such as energy and agriculture, including land-use and changes in using land and forestry and waste.
The contribution to adaptation will focus on agriculture, water resources and forestry in the deltas and coastal, mountainous and urban areas.
As a developing country heavily affected by climate change, Viet Nam believes that its contribution, based on current socio-economic conditions with a forecast to 2030, is fair, and reflects the highest effort of the country in responding to climate changes together with international communities, according to Hieu.
The conference was organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme and German Development Corporation.
Source: vietnamnet.vn