The workshop, themed “Opportunities and challenges in the review and implementation of nationally determined contributions,” was held by the Climate Change Working Group in Vietnam (CCWG) ahead of the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), slated for December 2018, in Poland.
According to the first draft of the report on nationally determined contributions (NDCs), updated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in late August, the Vietnamese Government has committed to cutting 9 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, using internal resources as compared with the normal scenario.
Participants at the workshop said Vietnam should change its development path in order to reduce poverty and become a prosperous nation without contributing to global warming.
Greenhouse gas emission reduction and growth model transformations as suggested in the Paris Agreement will receive widespread public support only when they are closely linked with the reduction of the ever increasing socio-economic inequality, they said.
Besides industrialised nations, Vietnam, through its updated NDCs, needs to show its commitments and accelerate its ambitious actions against climate change in order to ensure equal socio-economic development, they noted.
Hoang Viet, a representative of the CCWG, said the update and amendment of Vietnam’s NDCs requires the cooperation and strong commitments of all Government agencies, from national to grassroots level, as well as businesses and the entire community, aiming to affirm Vietnam’s position at international negotiations and promote sustainable national development with a low-carbon economy and high resilience and adaptability.
Yvonne Blos, Climate Project Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Vietnam, said to reap the outcomes as expected at the upcoming COP24, leaders of countries need to grasp the opportunities and utilise favourable conditions.
NDCs are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of these long-term goals. NDCs embody the efforts made by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, Paragraph 2) requires each party to prepare, communicate and maintain the successive NDCs that it intends to achieve. Parties will pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions.
