Vietnam attends global meeting on SAI's role, climate change action

New York (VNA) – A delegation from the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) led by Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan attended the global meeting on the engagement of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) in assessing government actions related to climate change in New York on March 25-26.

At the meeting, which drew leaders of SAIs from 60 countries, Tuan highlighted the efforts of the Vietnamese Government in building and issuing policies and national strategies to effectively respond to climate change and realise international commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Vietnam is an active and responsible member of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) Governing Board for the 2021-2024 period. In order to implement commitments stated in the Hanoi Declaration, over the years, SAV has conducted environmental audits related to environmental protection and climate change response, he said.

Bruno Dantas, President of the Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil, the Chair of the INTOSAI, emphasised that solving the problem of climate change is not only a common responsibility of countries but also of SAIs as these agencies hold an extremely important position in promoting action by governments to cope with the phenomenon.

The ClimateScanner initiative under the Strategic Plan 2023-2030 and Work Plan 2023-2025 of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (INTOSAI WGEA) is considered an ambitious project that can contribute to dealing with the climate crisis at both national and international levels, he held, noting that last year, the tool was developed by 17 SAIs.

However, the success of this project depends on the cooperation and participation of SAIs, said Dantas, expressing his hope that delegates will understand the tools and related aspects in detail as well as the benefits that SAIs and states receive to be able to fully exploit the potential of this project.

The two-day meeting focused on various issues, including existing initiatives of INTOSAI on climate change response, exploration of the ClimateScanner tool, and the global call for implementation of the ClimateScanner initiative. On the first day, participants were guided to use ClimateScanner, a tool enabling SAIs around the world to promote a global assessment of government actions related to climate change, in their country.

The same day, Tuan and Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to the United Nations, attended a meeting of the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution of taking June 11 every year as the International Day of Play, which was initiated by Vietnam and co-sponsored by 138 countries. The resolution was approved by consensus./.