Addressing the meeting, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment LeCong Thanh highlighted the project’s support in implementing Vietnam’s nationallydetermined contributions (NDC)and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
In order to speed up the project, he askedparticipants to make proposals and discuss the 2021 plan, especially activitiesrelating to State management over climate change and the enhancing of Vietnam’srole and responsibility as a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the UNFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Meanwhile, Weert Borner, Deputy Ambassador of Germany inVietnam, said that Vietnam was one of the first countries to build an actionplan to realise the Paris Agreement and one of the first to submit and updateits NDC.
He held that the VN-SIPA supports Vietnam in creating thenecessary suitable conditions for the deal, to mitigate the impact of climatechange and bring about environmental and socio-economic benefits for thecountry.
Pham Van Tan, Vice Director of the Climate ChangeAdministration at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said thatas COVID-19 is still a major issue, ministries and localities should preparealternative measures and speed up the implementation of approved plans.
Kia Fariborz, Chief Advisor of the VN-SIPA project,said that last year, Vietnam completed and updated its NDC report in September,which was recognised and lauded by the international community as it was one ofthe first 20 countries to do so.
The four-year VN-SIPA project was approved by thePrime Minister on April 3, 2019 and has a total cost of 10.3 million EUR (12.31million USD), funded by non-refundable ODA from Germany. It aims to strengthenthe legal framework and national capacity in implementing the Paris Agreement,with the core being conducting Vietnam’s NDC.
So far, it has assisted the building of a climatechange response programme in the revised Law on Environmental Protection 2020 as well asclimate change management documents and sectoral plans on climate changeresponse. It has defined solutions in the central provinces of Quang Binh andHa Tinh based on the ecosystem./.