National Strategy on Climate Change (Decision of the Prime Minister No. 2139/QĐTTg of 2011)

Meta Data

Draft:

Revision of previous policy?:

Effective Start Year:

2011

Scope:

National

Document Type:

Plan/Strategy

Economic Sector:

Power, Multi-Sector

Energy Types:

All, Power, Renewable, Bioenergy, Geothermal, Hydropower, Solar, Wave and Tidal, Wind, Other

Issued by:

Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Source:

Faolex

File:

National Strategy on Climate Change

Overall Summary:

Through this strategy, Vietnam is aiming to improve public awareness and capacity of responding to climate change while promoting economic development in order to raise the country’s economic competitiveness and national status on the international arena. Different areas of action are targeted under this policy, including energy.

Efficiency

EE priorities:

Saving and effectively using energies.---To restructure the economy through narrowing energy-intensive industries and developing energy-efficient ones;

EE targets:

[...] by 2020, 90% of industrial production facilities must use cleaner technologies and save energies, fuels, and materials;

EE action plans:

To design and implement policies which support and encourage the effective use of energies in economic fields, especially in transportation, urban development, industry, and agriculture [...].---To set up a sound energy valuing system for effectively using and saving energies and for development of new and recycled. A new energy valuing system must be issued in 2015;---To improve the economical use and preservation of energies; to monitor and supervise the use of energy in energy-intensive industries; to apply standards on energy efficiency to energy-saving products and systems.---reduce and reject out-of-date energy-intensive agricultural machinery.

EE lighting and mechanical system standards:

To put forth and apply technical standards and norms of effective energy use in the production of materials and to construction projects.

EE industry standards:

To put forth and apply technical standards and norms of effective energy use in the production of materials and to construction projects.

EE transport standards :

To set up and apply mechanisms and policies encouraging the use of energy-saving vehicles while getting rid of energy-intensive ones.

Renewable Energy

RE priorities:

Developing new and recycled energies.

RE targets:

To review, plan and develop hydroelectric projects properly for various purposes, so that the total output capacity of hydroelectric plants can reach 20,000-22,000 MW by 2020;--- to raise the percentage of new energies and recycled ones to 5% of the totality of primary commercial energies by 2020 and 11% by 2050.

RE action plans:

[...] to design and implement policies on engaging socio-economic sectors in applying and popularizing recycled energies;

RE prioritization, portfolio standards:

to raise the percentage of new energies and recycled ones to 5% of the totality of primary commercial energies by 2020 and 11% by 2050.

Environment

Pollution control action plans:

To introduce fuels of low greenhouse gas emission to means of transport; to encourage buses and taxis’ consumption of compressed natural gas and liquefied gas,[...]

Decarbonization strategy:

to check and reject ineffective technologies which largely consume energies and create greenhouse gases. Up to 2015, the plan on rejecting ineffective technologies must be finalized and issued;---To research, develop and apply technologies, equipment and consumer goods which use energies effectively, consume non-fossil energies and create low emission, especially in transportation, urban development, industry and agriculture;---; to speed up the replacement of fossil fuels with low-carbon ones;

Energy Supply and Infrastructure

Energy supply priorities:

To guarantee national energy security through synchronously developing different sources of energy;

Energy mix:

to raise the percentage of new energies and recycled ones to 5% of the totality of primary commercial energies by 2020 and 11% by 2050.

Governance

Energy management principles:

To guarantee[...] energy security[...].

Technology

Clean energy technology priorities:

to check and reject ineffective technologies which largely consume energies and create greenhouse gases. Up to 2015, the plan on rejecting ineffective technologies must be finalized and issued;

Clean energy technology deployment:

To introduce advanced technologies for increasing the output of electricity generation and reducing greenhouse gas emission at all newly-built thermoelectric plants; to apply small-scale electricity generating systems which use methane collected from dumping sites and other sources; to collect gases and make full use of redundant heat of industrial production factories for discovering and burning solid wastes for electricity generation;

R&D renewable energy:

[T]o boost research and development of technologies which can produce recycled energies and new ones, including wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, biofuel, and universal energy;

R&D energy efficiency:

To research, develop and apply technologies, equipment and consumer goods which use energies effectively, consume non-fossil energies and create low emission, especially in transportation, urban development, industry and agriculture;

R&D pollution abatement:

To research and apply new technologies of low greenhouse gas emission in industrial production[...]

Full Document Text

The National strategy on climate change was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Decision 2139/QĐ-TTg on December 05, 2011. The following is its full content (for reference):

National strategy on climate change

I. Climate change – Challenge and chance

1. Challenges

Climate change is one of biggest challenges to the human beings. Climate change can lead to serious impacts on production, life and environment on a global scale. Higher temperature and sea level rising will cause inundation and water salinity which can bring about negative effects on agriculture and high risks to industry and socio-economic systems in the future. Climate change have been and will continue leading to comprehensive and deep changes in global development and security, especially energy, water, food, society, job, diplomacy, culture, economy and trade.

According to a report of the Intergovernmental Committee for Climate Change, the global mean temperature and the sea level have sharply increased for the past 100 years, especially in recent 25 years. In Viet Nam, over 50 years, the mean temperature has increased by 0.5-0.7⁰C, and the sea level has risen by 20 cm. El Nino and La Nina cause more and more impacts. Climate change has really made natural disasters, especially storms, floods and droughts, increasingly violent.

Viet Nam is considered as one of the countries most affected by climate change, its Mekong Delta is one of the world’s three most vulnerable deltas (together with the Nile Delta in Egypt and the Ganges Delta in Bangladesh) to the sea level rising. According to climate change scenarios, in late 21^st century, Viet Nam’s yearly mean temperature will go up by 2-3⁰C, the total yearly and seasonal rainfall increases while the rainfall in dry seasons will decrease, the sea level can rise by 75 cm to 1 m compared to the 1980-1999 period. If the sea level rises by 1 m, about 40% of the Mekong Delta area, 11% of the Red River Delta and 3% of coastal provinces will be inundated (over 20% of Ho Chi Minh City flooded); about 10-12% of Viet Nam’s population are directly impacted and the country will lose around 10% of GDP. Climate change impacts on Viet Nam are serious threats to the cause of poverty reduction, the realization of millennium goals and the country’s sustainable development.

Over the past years, due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters have increased, causing great human and property losses, damaging socio-economic and cultural infrastructure, and imposing negative impacts on environment. In the last decade (2001-2010), such natural disasters like floods, flash floods, landslides, inundations, droughts, soil and water salinity and other calamities have resulted in 9,500 deaths and missings as well as damaged about 1.5% of annual GDP.

Climate change seriously threatens food security and agricultural development: agricultural lands are narrowed, especially a significant area of low-lying coastal lands, the Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta is flooded in salt water due to the sea level rising. As a result, growth and productivity of crops as well as cultivation schedule are affected, the risk of pestilent insects increases; the time of adaptability of tropical plants expands while that of subtropical ones reduces; domestic animals’ reproduction, growth, and ability of resisting epidemics are negatively influenced.

Due to climate change, water resource faces the danger of degradation because droughts increase in some certain regions and seasons, directly affecting agriculture and water supply in rural areas and cities as well as power generation. Changes in rain regime can lead to serious floods in rainy season and droughts in dry season, increasing contradictions in exploiting and using water resource.

Viet Nam plans to become a modern industrialized country by 2020, its production and consumption of energies will sharply increase, especially in industries, transport, and urban development, resulting in higher emission of greenhouse gas. This will work against the international tendency which requires each and every country, both developed and developing, to reduce their greenhouse gas emission in order to protect the earth’s climate system. Meanwhile, recycled and new energies with low greenhouse gas emission need big investment and high costs.

Many global-scale policies on mitigating greenhouse gas emission are being crafted and can create new trade barriers. If such developing countries like Viet Nam fail in taking proper choices and harmonizing their national policies with international ones, they cannot overcome those barriers because of lacking financial and technological potential needed for producing commodities which can compete on the market of low-carbon goods.

The community’s awareness of climate change is still very limited and one-sided, mainly centering on negative impacts but not on matching life styles, models of production and consumption with orientations of low-carbon and green growth.

These challenges urge Viet Nam to take greater efforts in its policies and measures to improve public awareness and capacity of responding to climate change while promoting economic development in order to raise the country’s economic competitiveness and national status on the international arena.

2. Chances

At present, a general model of development adopted by developing countries is to exploit natural resources, make use of cheap labor, and cause environment pollution. This is an unsustainable model. Climate change can bring about chances for us to change our thought of development and find out model and mode of low-carbon and sustainable development.

When Viet Nam has become a middle-income country, international aids for its development will become fewer and its international cooperation will be turned into win-win modes. Climate change can open more opportunities for global, multilateral and bilateral cooperation through which such developing countries like Viet Nam can access to new emerging regimes for financial assistance and technological transfer from developed countries.

Stronger integration and cooperation with other countries and international organizations in realizing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and related international treaties will improve Viet Nam’s role and status in the region and the world.

Fully aware of serious impacts of climate change on the country’s sustainable development, the Vietnamese Government has joined and approved the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, at the same time directing its agencies to complete the system of legal documents as the legal foundation for preventing and mitigating natural disasters and coping with climate change. In December 2008, the National Goal Program on Climate Change was approved. This was one of important efforts of the Government, with supports from international donors, in responding to climate change in Viet Nam. Some initial achievements in coping with climate change in Viet Nam have been recognized by the international community. To fruitfully deal with climate change and boost sustainable development, a national strategy on climate change with century-long visions, as the foundation for strategies, plans and programs, is very necessary for Viet Nam in the current situation.

II. STRATEGIC VIEWPOINTS

- Climate change is the biggest challenge to human beings, causing deep impacts and comprehensively changing the life on the globe. As one of the worst affected countries, Viet Nam considers the response to climate change a vital issue;

- Viet Nam’s response to climate change must be closely attached to sustainable development toward a low-carbon economy, at the same time all chances should be utilized in order to renew the thought of development and improve the country’s competitiveness and strengths;

- To simultaneously adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emission, focusing on adaptation in the early stage;

- Response to climate change is a responsibility of the whole apparatus; the State’s decisive role in management must be highlighted, enterprises’ creativity and responsibility encouraged, socio-political and professional organizations and communities’ participation and supervision brought into full play; it is also necessary to make full use of internal forces and international cooperation;

- Measures to cope with climate change must be systematical, integrated, interdisciplinary, interregional, and suitable to specific stages and international stipulations; they must be based on scientific foundations, traditional experience and indigenous knowledge; they must take into account socio-economic effects as well as risky and indefinite factors of climate change;

- The Strategy on climate change must have a century-long vision and be the foundation for other strategies.

III. STRATEGY’S TARGETS

1. General targets

To bring into play the whole country’s capacity in simultaneously taking measures of adapting to impacts of climate change and cutting down greenhouse gas emission in order to secure people’s safety and property as well as for the sake of sustainable development;

To strengthen people and natural systems’ adaptability to climate change while developing a low-carbon economy in order to protect and improve quality of life, guarantee national security and sustainable development in the context of global climate change, and proactively work with the international community in protecting the earth’s climate system.

2. Specific targets

- To guarantee food security, energy security, water security, poverty reduction, gender equality, social security, public health, and better livelihood as well as protect natural resources in the context of climate change;

- To turn low-carbon economy and green growth into main orientations for sustainable development; lower emission and higher absorption of greenhouse gases to become compulsory indicators of socio-economic development;

- To improve relevant parties’ awareness, responsibility and capacity of coping with climate change; to develop scientific and technological potential and improve quality of human resource; to perfect the system of institutions and policies, to raise and effectively use financial resources for Viet Nam’s higher economic competitiveness and status; to make use of opportunities brought about by climate change for socio-economic development; to encourage and popularize climate system-friendly ways of living and modes of consumption;

- To hardly work with the international community in coping with climate change; to enhance Viet Nam’s international cooperation for effectively responding to climate change.

IV. STRATEGY’S MISSIONS

1. Proactively coping with natural disasters and monitoring climate

a) Early warnings

- To build up and operate a climate change and sea level rising monitoring system which can serve the work of making flood maps, natural disaster maps, and climate maps in line with different scenarios of climate change and sea level rising, in combination with geographic and remote sensing information to serve the policy making process from central to local levels. Up to 2015, the construction of climate change and sea level rising monitoring system must be completed;

- To modernize the observatory system and hydrometeorological forecasting technologies in order to secure timely warnings and forecast of weather and climate extremes. Up to 2020, a network of hydrometeorological observatories should be developed, with a density similar to that of developed countries and 90% of the observatories must be automated. It is necessary to consolidate remote measuring systems which can uninterruptedly monitor weather, climate and water resource changes, providing full data for hydrometeorological forecasts and other demands through advanced methods. To increase the predictability of storms and cold-snaps to 3 days with an accuracy equivalent to the advanced level of Asia in order to minimize human and property damages due to climate extremes. Up to 2050, the observatory system for hydrometeorological forecast and climate extreme warnings must be upgraded to the advanced level of the world;

- To expand and consolidate the hydrometeorological observatory and monitoring system, with the participation of State and non-State organizations and individuals and on the basis of the uniform management of professional activities and data by the hydrometeorology sector.

b) Mitigating damages caused by natural disasters

- To review and design development planning schemes and standards of construction in the regions regularly suffering natural disasters in response to the increase of natural disasters due to climate change; to consolidate and build up key and urgent works to prevent and respond to natural disasters;

- To apply the principle of “Four On-sites” while enhancing capacity of professional rescue forces. This work must be the key for directing the close coordination and collaboration among rescue forces, especially in responding to urgent situations;

- To take specific measures for fruitfully preventing and coping with natural disasters, flash floods and landslides in mountain areas; to maintain these measures effectively for long term;

- To improve quality of forests and afforestation, to turn bare lands and hills green, to effectively exploit different kinds of forest to secure and improve resistance against natural disasters, preventing desertization, land erosion and degradation; to enhance protection, management and development of mangrove forests and flooded ecosystems; to raise the forest coverage to 45% by 2020.

2. Guaranteeing food security and water resource

a) Food security

- To maintain a proper and sustainable land fund for agricultural activities in all localities in order to guarantee food security in the context of climate change;

- To survey and change the cultivation and husbandry structure in line with conditions of climate change and sea level rising as well as ecological characteristics of specific regions and localities, to make full use of all chances for sustainable agricultural development;

- To research, develop and introduce biotechnologies, apply advanced production processes for a modern agriculture which can adapt to climate change;

- To build and perfect a network of controlling and preventing diseases for crops and domestic animals under conditions of climate change. This work should be fulfilled in the main by 2020 and further completed in the following stages;

- To design regimes and policies, to strengthen insurance system for mitigating risks in agricultural activities.

b) Water security

- To build the database of change and use of water resource in relation with climate change, to enhance qualitative and quantitative surveys, researches, evaluations, forecasts and observations in exploiting and using water resource;

- To enhance international cooperation in researching, evaluating, and managing quality and volume of water resource as well as sharing transborder water profits;

- To design the master planning scheme of water resource in big territorial areas and river basins, including the Bằng Giang-Kỳ Cùng, Red River, Mã-Cả, Trung Trung Bộ, Nam Trung Bộ, Sesan-Srepok, Đồng Nai-Sài Gòn, and Mekong;

- To set up and perfect standards and regulations for effective and multi-purposed exploitation and use of water resource in conformity with climate change and sea level rising;

- To improve, upgrade, repair and build irrigation works, hydroelectric plants, and systems of river dike and breakwaters which can effectively cope with floods, droughts, seal level rising, and salt contamination in the context of climate change;

- To complete general management processes and projects for scientific exploitation, protection and use of water resource in the context of climate change by 2050;

- To improve the management of water resource; to promote the realization of planning schemes and take synchronous measures for sustainable development of the country’s water resource in the context of climate change. This work must be in the main fulfilled by 2020 and further completed in the following stages.

3. Actively responding to sea level rising in line with conditions of vulnerable regions

- To survey, evaluate and predict the scale, impacts and vulnerability of different fields, regions and communities due to sea level rising;

- To craft a master planning scheme for socio-economic development in line with climate change, paying special attention to the increase of storms, floods, salt contamination, droughts, soil erosion, and environment degradation in key and highly vulnerable regions, including the Mekong Delta, Red River Delta, central coastal region, marine reserves and marine biodiversity parks;

- To protect and develop islands in response to climate change, particularly sea level rising;

- To develop infrastructure and plan residential areas in response to climate change; to consolidate and upgrade important sections of breakwater and river dike so that they can resist level-9 storms and tide with frequency of 5%; to prevent salt contamination in worst affected regions; to prevent inundation in cities, big urban areas, industrial parks, and big residential zones; to place importance on developing large-scale and multi-purposed works, reservoirs, buffer zones and green belts;

- To review, adjust and develop livelihood and production in conformity with conditions of climate change and sea level rising.

4. Protecting and developing forests sustainably, increasing the absorption of greenhouse gases and preserving biodiversity

- To speed up the schedule of afforestation and re-afforestation projects, encourage enterprises to invest in planting economic forests. Up to 2020, it is necessary to establish, manage, protect, develop and use 16.24 million hectares of land planned for forestry activities in a sustainable way; raise the forest coverage to 45%; sustainably and effectively manage 8.132 million ha of production forests, 5.842 million ha of preventive forests and 2.271 million ha of special-use forests;

- To preserve biodiversity, protect and develop ecosystems and species which can well resist climatic changes; to protect and preserve genes and species endangered by impacts of climate change;

- To craft and realize programs on reducing greenhouse gas emission through efforts of minimizing forest loss and deterioration, managing forest in a sustainable way, preserving and improving forests’ absorption of carbon, and maintaining and diversifying local people’s livelihood as well as helping them to adapt to climate change;

- To design and implement programs on protecting and managing available natural forests, preventive forests, special-use forests, and production forests;

- To design and implement models of green urban and residential areas;

- To craft and realize policies on engaging socio-economic sectors in sustainably protecting and developing forests and natural ecosystems in order to cope with climate change while improving the carbon absorption of these forests and ecosystems;

- To increase capacity and efficiency of systems for evaluating, forecasting, preventing, monitoring, supervising and urgently responding to forest fires.

5. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect the Earth’s climate

a) Developing new and recycled energies

- To review, plan and develop hydroelectric projects properly for various purposes, so that the total output capacity of hydroelectric plants can reach 20,000-22,000 MW by 2020;

- To boost research and development of technologies which can produce recycled energies and new ones, including wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, biofuel, and universal energy; to design and implement policies on engaging socio-economic sectors in applying and popularizing recycled energies;

- To guarantee national energy security through synchronously developing different sources of energy; to raise the percentage of new energies and recycled ones to 5% of the totality of primary commercial energies by 2020 and 11% by 2050.

b) Saving and effectively using energies

- To restructure the economy through narrowing energy-intensive industries and developing energy-efficient ones;

- To design and implement policies which support and encourage the effective use of energies in economic fields, especially in transportation, urban development, industry, and agriculture; to check and reject ineffective technologies which largely consume energies and create greenhouse gases. Up to 2015, the plan on rejecting ineffective technologies must be finalized and issued;

- To research, develop and apply technologies, equipment and consumer goods which use energies effectively, consume non-fossil energies and create low emission, especially in transportation, urban development, industry and agriculture;

- To set up a sound energy valuing system for effectively using and saving energies and for development of new and recycled. A new energy valuing system must be issued in 2015;

- To introduce advanced technologies for increasing the output of electricity generation and reducing greenhouse gas emission at all newly-built thermoelectric plants; to apply small-scale electricity generating systems which use methane collected from dumping sites and other sources; to collect gases and make full use of redundant heat of industrial production factories for discovering and burning solid wastes for electricity generation;

- To improve the economical use and preservation of energies; to monitor and supervise the use of energy in energy-intensive industries; to apply standards on energy efficiency to energy-saving products and systems.

Industrial production and construction:

- To research and apply new technologies of low greenhouse gas emission in industrial production; to speed up the replacement of fossil fuels with low-carbon ones; to popularize cleaner production, so that by 2020, 90% of industrial production facilities must use cleaner technologies and save energies, fuels, and materials;

- To enhance research and development of high technologies in key industries; by 2020, the added value of hi-tech industries must be raised to 42-45% of the total industrial production; to boost technological renovation through adopting high technologies and renewing 20% of machinery and equipment by 2020. The production value of hi-tech industries must be raised to 80% by 2050;

- To put forth and apply technical standards and norms of effective energy use in the production of materials and to construction projects.

Transportation:

- To plan the system of transportation and improve its quality to international standards; to develop means of public transport in urban areas while controlling the growth of individual means of transport. By 2020, the system of public transport must in the main satisfy the society’s demand for transportation. The modernization of a nationwide transport network and externally-orientated transport corridor must be completed by 2050;

- To introduce fuels of low greenhouse gas emission to means of transport; to encourage buses and taxis’ consumption of compressed natural gas and liquefied gas, so that 20% of these vehicles will use such energies by 2020 and 80% by 2050;

- To set up and apply mechanisms and policies encouraging the use of energy-saving vehicles while getting rid of energy-intensive ones.

c) Agriculture

To change methods of agricultural cultivation, use water, fertilizers and cattle-feed properly, manage and treat wastes from husbandry activities, develop and use biogas as fuels, reduce and reject out-of-date energy-intensive agricultural machinery. To boost green agricultural production of low emission in order to guarantee sustainable development and national food security as well as facilitate poverty reduction: The reduction of greenhouse gas emission, agricultural growth rate and poverty reduction should be maintained at 20% every 10 years.

d) Waste management

- To make planning schemes for waste management in order to minimize recycle and reuse wastes for lower emission of greenhouse gases;

- To promote research and introduction of advanced waste treating technologies; to apply modern waste treating technologies in urban and rural areas; to strengthen the management, treatment and reuse of industrial and domestic sewage; by 2020, 90% of the total volume of urban domestic solid wastes should be gathered and treated, in which 85% is recycled and reused.

6. Strengthening the key role of the State in responding to climate change

a) Including climate change topic in strategies, schemes and plans

- To review and revise strategies, planning schemes, and plans on socio-economic development crafted by ministries, sectors, and localities on the basis of scientific criteria, economic efficiency and possible unpredicted factors of climate change and sea level rising. These revised strategies, schemes and plans should be issued by 2015;

- To insert climate change topic in regional and local socio-economic development schemes and plans; to revise, supplement and finalize technical standards for designing construction and infrastructure works in line with climate change scenarios. To complete and stabilize by 2030 sustainable economic zones which can stand for climate change.

b) Improving and strengthening institutions

- To establish the National Committee for Climate Change as an advisory agency for the Prime Minister in researching and proposing strategic guidelines and resolutions; to mobilize, regulate and monitor all resources for implementing strategies and programs in response to climate change;

- To design synchronous regimes, policies and laws on climate change in conformity with the country’s specific stages of development, global policies and international conventions on climate change under which Viet Nam is a member;

- To enhance the participation of the entire political system in interdisciplinary organization and collaboration for coping with climate change; to improve efficiency and validity of central-to-local-level management of climate change issues;

- To finalize functions, tasks, organizational structure and workforce of competent agencies in charge of climate change and international integration;

- To build up and operate a network for monitoring, reporting and assessing domestic and international activities for reducing greenhouse gas emission;

- To design synchronous regimes and policies which encourage and attract the participation of enterprises and scientists in activities of adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emission;

- To set up mechanisms for supporting communities, encourage non-governmental organizations to join activities of adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emission;

7. Building communities which can effectively cope with climate change

a) Communities coping with climate change

- To strengthen communities’ capability and participation in activities of coping with climate change; to place importance on experience of on-site response and the role of local governments and grassroots-level mass organizations;

- To develop and diversify means of subsistence in regions and localities in order to support the adaptation to climate change in line with different levels of vulnerability;

- To pilot and popularize the model of community with low-carbon livelihood; to change people’s behavior and ways of life towards climate friendliness in order to reduce greenhouse gas emission;

- To boost the use of indigenous knowledge in coping with climate change, especially in designing new low-carbon means of subsistence.

b) Upgrading the health care system for communities which can effectively cope with climate change

- To repair, upgrade and build infrastructure, modernize equipment, improve capability of health staff from central to local levels, and promote the prevention of epidemics and new diseases to better quality of community health care in the context of climate change. All people can access to fundamental health services by 2020 and to full health care by 2030;

- To craft and implement community health care policies in the context of climate change, securing interests of vulnerable social groups, such as women, the aged, the poor, and ethnic minorities.

c) Improving people’s awareness, education and training

- To improve awareness and responsibility of cadres, civil servants and all walks of life in terms of climate change issues;

- To design proper methods through which all walks of life can access and use climate change information; to diversify modes of disseminating information of impacts, dangers and chances of climate change, paying attention to important communities and localities;

- To insert basic knowledge of climate change in educational programs at all echelons; to nurture and train high-quality human resources for adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emission;

- To raise individual and community accountability in preventing and overcoming consequences of natural disasters; to build and introduce climate-friendly ways of life and models of consumption to each and every member of the community; to encourage and popularize good examples of coping with climate change.

8. Developing advanced science and technology to cope with climate change

- To develop scientific specialties of managing, evaluating, monitoring and forecasting impacts of climate change on socio-economic development, health care, production and consumption;

- To promote surveys, scientific researches and technological applications for adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emission;

- To boost researches, encourage technological transfer and effectively apply modern scientific and technological achievements, new fuels and materials in reducing greenhouse gas emission and adapting to climate change, increasing competitiveness of key economic and production industries for low-carbon economic development and green growth.

9. Promoting international cooperation and integration while raising the nation’s status in dealing with climate change issues

- To further cooperate with countries and international organizations in realizing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant international conventions; to proactively and creatively design bilateral and multilateral agreements and treaties on climate change;

- To revise and supplement legal system, regimes and policies in conformity with international agreements and treaties on climate change under which Viet Nam is a member;

- To boost externally-orientated information work on climate change, paying attention to cooperation in monitoring and sharing information about transborder issues in order to harmonize interests among different countries.

10. Diversify financial resources and boosting effective investment

- To increase State budget investment and further mobilize international aid; to set up and apply financial mechanisms and institutions suitable to international policies on climate change in order to mobilize and effectively use bilateral and multilateral capital sources for proactively coping with impacts of climate change;

- To actively take part in international programs on reducing greenhouse gas emission in order to make use of financial and technological supports while improving capability of realizing programs for reducing greenhouse gas emission;

- To strengthen management and collaboration in using domestic and international capital sources for fruitfully coping with climate change, giving priority to urgent projects;

- To encourage and mobilize organizations, individuals and enterprises at home and abroad to finance activities of coping with climate change.

V. IMPLEMENTATION

1. Phases of implementation

In the context of increasingly severe impacts of climate change on Viet Nam and increasingly complicated international negotiations for climate change, orientations for the implementation of the Strategy are identified as follows:

- From now to 2012: Urgent activities must be conducted. International negotiations for reducing greenhouse gas emission and mechanisms of financial assistance among different groups of country in the world are very complicated. In this phase, it is necessary to place importance on activities of improving capacity, developing science and technology, reviewing, revising and supplementing regimes, policies and strategies on green growth, adaptation to climate change and lower greenhouse gas emission in line with international situations which can clearly emerge after 2012.

- Period of 2013-2025: To become a modern industrial country as desired, after 2025, Viet Nam should pay a special attention to reducing greenhouse gas emission in order to protect the earth’s climate system. Its activities to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emission should be carried out in combination with socio-economic development.

- Period of 2026-2050: In this period, Viet Nam already becomes a modern industrial country, therefore reducing greenhouse gas emission must be a criterion in socio-economic development activities. Strategic tasks will be checked, adjusted and supplemented in line with new development orientations to build and consolidate a low-carbon economy which can resist and adapt to impacts of climate change.

2. Programs and plans prioritized in 2011-2015

On the basis of Strategy’s viewpoints, principles, visions, targets and phases of implementation, the Government specifies the following priority programs and projects to be checked, designed and implemented:

a) National Goal Program on Climate Change, with a plan for expansion in 2016-2025;

b) National Scientific and Technological Program on Climate Change;

c) Plan on modernizing forecast technology and hydrometeorological observatory network up to 2020;

d) Program on water management and adaptation to climate change in the Mekong and Red River Deltas;

đ) Plan to appraise and monitor greenhouse gas emission and manage activities of reducing greenhouse gas emission;

e) Program on responding to climate change in Viet Nam’s big urban areas;

g) Program on upgrading and improving the system of breakwater and river dike in conformity with climate change and sea level rising;

h) Plan on upgrading the community health care system in line with climate change and sea level rising;

i) Program on socio-economic development in residential islands in response to climate change and sea level rising;

k) Plan on piloting and popularizing models of community effectively coping with climate change.

3. Accountabilities of ministries, sectors, localities and relevant agencies

a) Ministry of Resource and Environment (MONRE)

MONRE is the permanent agency of the National Committee for Climate Change; it functions as the main implementer, in collaboration with ministries, sectors and localities, in managing and realizing the Strategy, focusing on the following missions:

- To design regimes and policies on managing, operating and directing the implementation of the Strategy;

- To annually work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance in reviewing financial demands necessary for activities of coping with climate change and reporting to the Government;

- To guide and assist ministries, sectors and localities in crafting and realizing plans on implementing the Strategy;

- To check, supervise and periodically review and assess the implementation of the Strategy;

- To make annual reports to the Prime Minister on the implementation of the Strategy, and propose solutions for issues beyond its competence;

- To monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Strategy.

b) Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI)

- To function as the main implementer, in collaboration with ministries, sectors and localities, in designing and realizing the framework standards for inserting climate change topic into socio-economic development strategies, programs, schemes and plans;

- To work with the MONRE in crafting regimes of monitoring and assessing the implementation of the Strategy.

c) Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and governmental bodies

To be responsible for setting up and realizing plans on implementing the Strategy; to actively take part collaborative activities as directed by the Government.

d) Provincial-level People’s Committees

- To compose and realize plans on implementing the Strategy at local level;

- To conduct relevant activities as approved in the Strategy;

- To proactively mobilize resources and combine relevant activities under other local programs in order to fulfill targets set in the Strategy;

- To make periodical reports on the implementation of targets and tasks set in the Strategy within their provinces as stipulated.

đ) Social organizations, NGOs, and enterprises

Socio-political organizations, socio-professional organizations, mass organizations, non-governmental organizations and enterprises, with their competence, shall proactively take part in activities of coping with climate change; support and mobilize the community’s participation, popularize good experience and effective models of coping with climate change; conduct or join in conducting projects and plans set in ministerial, sectoral and local strategies./.