On behalf of the leaders of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh was pleased to welcome Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, who is on a working trip to Vietnam and working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The Deputy Minister respectfully acknowledged the cooperation of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific with the Ministry in the field of natural resources and environment in recent times.
Building on that foundation of deep cooperation, Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana shared with the Deputy Minister that ESCAP is implementing initiatives to respond to climate change and protect the environment in the Asia-Pacific region, in which Vietnam is considered a typical model. “We are very grateful for Vietnam’s commitment to bring net zero emissions to 2050 and we want to accompany and support Vietnam on this journey,” Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana expressed.
According to the proposal of ESCAP representative, the two sides can cooperate to implement nature-based solutions, build circular economy model, cooling activities in the face of climate warming (piloted in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang), reduce air pollution in large cities through air quality management, monitoring of monitoring data, sharing of expertise and capacity building in this field. At the same time, ESCAP also received a proposal to support the Government of Vietnam to establish a Secretariat to support the implementation of the Political Declaration establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
Agreeing on these contents, Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh hopes that ESCAP will always accompany Vietnam in green transformation, both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Regarding the topic of environment, the Deputy Minister said that there are times when air pollution is getting worse in some major cities of Vietnam. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has issued policies to overcome this, however, to improve further, Vietnam needs to invest more in monitoring networks to control air quality, thereby warning about air pollution.
Regarding urban cooling, Vietnam is a member of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Accordingly, Vietnam controls and eliminates greenhouse gases with high global warming potential and climate change agents such as HFCs and HCFCs.
Discussing the implementation of JETP, the Deputy Minister suggested that ESCAP could support Vietnam in managing public investment combined with private investment and technology transfer to implement JETP. ESCAP could also help Vietnam overcome difficulties in reducing coal-fired thermal power plants and improve the capacity to forecast and warn of weather at sea to minimize damage caused by natural disasters and climate change.
Sharing the challenges of Vietnam in responding to climate change, Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana said: “Green transformation and sustainable development require new initiatives and breakthroughs to help us move forward. ESCAP will work specifically, providing experts to meet Vietnam's needs more specifically. ESCAP is ready to support to promote the implementation of JETP in Vietnam to success”./.
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