Instead, environmental governance, climate resilience, scientific and technological capability, innovation, and the efficient management of natural capital are becoming the decisive factors shaping a nation's competitiveness, resilience, and global standing in the twenty-first century.
Against this backdrop, Viet Nam faces the imperative of fundamentally rethinking its development model. Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW — adopted at the Seventh Plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee on June 3, 2013, with a focus on proactively responding to climate change, strengthening natural resource management, and environmental protection — marked a significant milestone by, for the first time, identifying climate adaptation, resource management, and environmental protection as strategic national priorities.
More than a decade after its implementation, important progress has been made. However, profound changes in the international landscape, the increasingly severe impacts of climate change, and the need to establish a new development model require Viet Nam to elevate its theoretical understanding of environmental issues to a new level.
This vision was underscored by General Secretary and State President To Lam in his article titled "For an ecological civilisation, a green Viet Nam and a peaceful, sustainable ocean," in which he affirmed that green development, environmental protection, ocean conservation, and climate action must become a fundamental pillar of Viet Nam's development model in the new era. He also stressed that the environment should be regarded as central to national development, security, peace, and long-term prosperity.
This represents an important evolution in the Party's thinking, shifting the approach from treating environmental protection as a specialised policy area to recognising the environment as the foundation of the nation's development capacity.
From environmental protection to building an ecological civilisation for the new era
For decades, economic growth has largely been measured by GDP expansion, increased production, and greater exploitation of natural resources. Yet development experience has shown that a growth model driven by excessive resource extraction has generated increasingly severe consequences, ranging from climate change and biodiversity loss to air, water and soil pollution, as well as growing risks to public health, food security, and social stability.
As a result, many developed economies have shifted from a resource extraction mindset to one centred on managing natural capital. According to the OECD, natural capital encompasses not only land, water, forests, oceans, minerals, and biodiversity but also the ecosystems that provide essential services underpinning economic growth, public health, and societal resilience. In other words, the environment is no longer viewed as an external consideration in development but as a strategic asset with value equivalent to financial capital, human capital, and technological capital in national development.
Thinking on environmental issues must therefore continue to evolve by recognising the environment as the foundation of national self-reliance. In this context, self-reliance extends beyond scientific and technological capability, energy security, food security, and data sovereignty to include the capacity to maintain and restore ecosystems, safeguard water resources, ensure environmental and biological security, and strengthen resilience against climate-related shocks.
For Viet Nam, the time has come to make a strategic transition from viewing "the environment as a sector requiring management" to recognising "the environment as the foundation of a new development model." Once the environment is understood as a form of strategic national capital, every policy decision relating to planning, investment, industry, agriculture, urban development, energy, transport, science, and technology must be designed to enhance, rather than deplete, the nation's natural capital in pursuit of short-term economic gains.
Only through such an approach can Viet Nam achieve its ambition of rapid yet sustainable development, strengthen national self-reliance, and gradually build an ecological civilisation in which economic growth, social progress, environmental protection, and national strength advance in harmony as an integrated whole.
The environment: From constraint on growth to driver of new national development model
One of the most fundamental shifts in global development thinking over the past two decades has been the transition from viewing the environment as a "limit to growth" to recognising it as a strategic resource capable of generating new drivers of development. Whereas environmental issues were once associated primarily with pollution control, resource management, and disaster mitigation, they are now regarded as the foundation for innovation, economic transformation, green technologies, enhanced competitiveness, and expanded opportunities for national development. This represents a profound shift from merely protecting the environment to creating new sources of value through it.
This perspective is particularly significant as Viet Nam pursues a new development model. It constitutes an important theoretical advance, as the environment is, for the first time, placed alongside the nation's other foundational capabilities — not merely as an area of public administration but as an essential component of long-term national strength.
It also reflects the reality that environmental protection should no longer be viewed as a cost of development but as an investment capable of generating substantial long-term returns. Every hectare of restored forest contributes not only to biodiversity conservation but also to water regulation, carbon sequestration, disaster risk reduction, infrastructure protection, and the livelihoods of local communities. Every river with improved water quality not only lowers pollution treatment costs but also enhances public health, supports agricultural production, strengthens tourism, and increases property values. Every green city improves quality of life while attracting investment, highly skilled talent, and creative industries. Investing in the environment is therefore an investment in long-term economic growth and national prosperity.
In an era of intensifying global strategic competition, the environment has also become a decisive factor in national self-reliance. Countries that depend heavily on transboundary water resources, fail to protect their ecosystems, suffer land degradation, endure severe air pollution, or deplete marine resources face mounting risks to food security, energy security, public health, and social stability.
Conversely, nations that maintain healthy ecosystems are better equipped to withstand climate change, natural disasters, pandemics, and global economic shocks. The environment is therefore not simply an ecological concern but also a matter of national security, human security, and sustainable development.
This reality calls for continued innovation in development governance by making environmental performance one of the core criteria for assessing the quality of development. Every strategy, development plan, and investment programme should be evaluated against three interrelated dimensions: economic efficiency, social value, and the capacity to enhance natural capital.
It also requires a decisive shift from sector-based environmental management towards integrated ecosystem governance supported by big data, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation, alongside stronger mechanisms for coordination across sectors, regions, and levels of government to address systemic environmental challenges. Such an approach is not only essential for sustainable development but also represents a strategic opportunity to establish a new development model in which economic growth, social progress, environmental protection, and national self-reliance are fully integrated, laying the foundations for a prosperous, resilient, and enduring Viet Nam for generations to come.
The Environment: A foundation for rapid, sustainable development and national self-reliance
The environment is no longer merely a recipient of waste or a source of natural resources. It has become a strategic national asset that directly determines the quality of economic growth, resilience to global shocks, national self-reliance, and international competitiveness.
For this reason, many developed countries have shifted decisively from the mindset of "protecting the environment for development" to one of "developing through the environment," recognising the environment as the foundation of a new development model.[2]
According to the World Bank, unless Viet Nam adopts robust climate adaptation measures and accelerates its green transition, climate change could reduce the country's GDP by around 12% by 2050, while exposing millions of people to the risk of losing their livelihoods as a result of sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, and increasingly severe natural disasters.[3] This demonstrates that environmental protection is not simply an ecological imperative but also a prerequisite for sustaining economic growth, maintaining social stability, and safeguarding national defence and security.
In his article "For an ecological civilisation, a green Viet Nam, and a peaceful, sustainable ocean", General Secretary and State President To Lam emphasised that green development, environmental protection, ocean conservation, and climate action must become one of the fundamental pillars of Viet Nam's development model in the new era.
This represents an important shift from viewing the environment as a specialised area of public administration to recognising it as a cross-cutting foundation underpinning the entire national development process. It also broadens the concept of national security, placing environmental security, ecological security, water security, climate security, and resource security at the heart of national self-reliance in the twenty-first century.
The environment is also becoming an increasingly decisive factor in economic competitiveness. Major markets — including the European Union, the US, Japan, and many other advanced economies — are introducing a growing range of requirements relating to carbon emissions, product traceability, green manufacturing, sustainable finance, and environmental responsibility throughout global supply chains.
The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) provides a clear illustration of how environmental standards have become one of the new "rules of the game" in international trade.[4] In this context, countries that fail to advance the green transition risk losing export competitiveness, surrendering their comparative advantages, and being excluded from global value chains.
Building a green economy is therefore not only about meeting international standards but also about creating new engines of growth driven by science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation. The development of renewable energy, the circular economy, the bioeconomy, ecological agriculture, green cities, and environmental services not only contributes to emissions reduction but also creates high-value industries, generates quality employment, raises labour productivity, and stimulates innovation.
More importantly, the environment should be recognised as an integral component of national self-reliance. Countries with well-protected ecosystems, efficient resource management, thriving clean energy sectors, modern environmental governance, and a strong public awareness of ecological sustainability possess a far more resilient foundation for rapid, sustainable, and self-reliant development.
The environment must therefore be regarded as a form of natural capital, a strategic infrastructure asset and a source of national competitive advantage in the new era. Protecting the environment is not simply about preserving nature for future generations; it is also about strengthening the nation's long-term resilience, enhancing endogenous capacity, improving its ability to adapt to global challenges, and realising the aspiration of building a rapidly developing, sustainable, prosperous, and strong Viet Nam.
This also provides an important theoretical and practical foundation for further refining the forthcoming resolution on proactively responding to climate change, strengthening natural resource management, and protecting the environment, thereby ensuring that the environment becomes one of the strategic pillars of Viet Nam's national development model in the new era.
[1]https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2021/05/biodiversity-natural-capital-and-the-economy_940af1d4/1a1ae114-en.pdf
[2] file:///C:/Users/BAN-TGDVTW/Downloads/GEO6_2019.pdf
[3]https://cafef.vn/bien-doi-khi-hau-co-the-xoa-sach-thanh-qua-tang-truong-ca-thap-ky-cua-viet-nam-188251108073023979.chn
[4] https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism_en
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