PM Dung to attend Copenhagen conference

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will leave Russia after a two-day working visit on Dec. 15 for the Danish capital city of Copenhagen to attend the United Nations high-level debate on climate change.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will leave Russia after a two-day working visit on Dec. 15 for the Danish capital city of Copenhagen to attend the United Nations high-level debate on climate change.

PM Dung and the Vietnamese delegation will attend the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) and the 5th Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP5) in Copenhagen , Denmark from Dec. 16-18.

PM Dung is scheduled to deliver a speech at the plenary session of the meeting which puts forth five main viewpoints of Vietnam , one of which is that all countries in the world to join efforts in the fight against climate change.

Vietnam is also scheduled to urge developed nations in making mid-term and long-term obligatory commitments to reducing emissions with a view to maintain the green house gas concentration of well below 400 parts per million (ppm) so that the world average temperature will not increase by more than two degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

An additional viewpoint is that developed nations need to provide financial assistance and support technology transfers to countries heavily hit by climate change. Also, developing countries need to contribute to the global joint efforts. The UN framework on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol should continue to be the basic legal documents for the international community in responding to climate change.

Vietnam will host a workshop under the theme: “Vietnam in response to climate change” on the sidelines of the summit. Its representatives will also present reports at sideline conferences on issues such as amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, plans to exhaust emission reductions by 2012 and improving climate change adaptive capacity and mitigation, as well as proposed financial support to address climate change impacts.

As one of a few countries being severely affected by climate change, Vietnam has actively taken initiatives in responding to the issue. Many countries want Vietnam to act as a bridge to help narrow the differences in the positions held by developing and developed countries on long-term cooperation to deal with the global concern.

The current world conference on climate change in Copenhagen is critical because participating countries are scheduled to put forth new global agreements in response to global climate change which are to be executed after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The conference is expected to discuss many issues relating to amendments and complements to the Kyoto Protocol, mechanisms for capacity building and technology transfers, and financial support provisions in the protocol./.

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