Hanoi (VNA) – A workshop took place in Hanoi onApril 18 to review and update Vietnam’s Nationally Determined Contribution(NDC) to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

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

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

The review and update of the greenhouse gas mitigationcomponent in Vietnam focuses on energy-related policies, industrial andagricultural production, land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) andwaste, reported Nguyen Khac Hieu, Deputy Director of the MoNRE’s Climate ChangeDepartment.

Evaluation of data needed for calculating costs andpossibility for greenhouse gas mitigation in various areas and the developmentof scenarios for greenhouse gas mitigation between 2020 and 2030 were alsodiscussed.

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

At the event, the review team proposed 45 plans forreducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, industry, energy and LULUCFto support a scenario to achieve a cut of more than 299 million tonnes of CO2from 2020-2030.

In regards to adaption to climate change, the team isworking to review the local status of climate change adaption, calculate lossesand damage and benefits of integrating climate change adaption and mitigation,and evaluate impacts of Vietnam’s NDC on the country’s socio-economicdevelopment.

Hoang Anh, from the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment and a member of the NDC review team, suggested the NDC includeissues like Agriculture 4.0, organic agriculture and aquaculture.

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

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment VoTuan Nhan appreciated the recommendations of ministries and internationalorganisations and vowed he will push for better cooperation between thegovernmental bodies in the NDC review and update.

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