Can Tho to take part in WWF’s One Planet City Challenge this year

A view of the meeting between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and leaders of the Mekong Delta's Can Tho city on April 28. (Photo: VNA)

Can Tho (VNA) - The Mekong Delta’s Can Tho city will take part in the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) this year, with the aim of transforming itself into a clean and green city, a recent meeting heard.

The statement was made by Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Duong Tan Hien during a meeting with WWF representatives in the city on April 28.

The OPCC was initiated by the WWF to mobilise action and support from cities in the global transition towards a climate-friendly future and to promote measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

It first began in Sweden in 2011 and expanded globally in 2013, according to Tran Anh Tuan, technical advisor with the OPCC. Since 2017, it has been held twice a year on an increasingly larger scale, and more than 320 cities from 20 countries have joined in to date.

Via the challenge, he said, cities share smart, efficient solutions for low-carbon and climate-resilient urban development and drive the global transition towards a 100-percent renewable energy future.

More than half of the world’s population live in cities that are seeing rapid urbanisation, Tuan continued. They generate over 80 percent of global GDP but also contribute 70 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As political and business hubs, cities should play a decisive role in mitigating climate change, he said.

A number of central cities in Vietnam have participated in the OPCC since 2015, including Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, Dong Ha, Dong Hoi, and Vinh. In 2020-2021, two more - Can Tho and Soc Trang - are expected to join.

As a first-class municipality, Can Tho faces many of the same problems other cities are confronting in their development process, Hien said. It has taken part in several programmes and networks, such as The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities, in an effort to minimise the negative impacts of climate change in each area.

He pledged that Can Tho will fulfil all of its commitments and adopt effective measures to make itself a greener and more modern city when joining the OPCC.

In 2018, Da Nang was awarded the title National Capital of the OPCC, making it the only city in Vietnam to join a list of 21 winning cities around the world./.

VNA