The Steering Committee of the project “Support to Vietnam for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement” (VN-SIPA) held its second meeting in Hanoi on April 14 with the participation of representatives from certain ministries, sectors, and localities.
Illustrative image (Source: VNA) - The Steering Committee of the project “Support to Vietnam
for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement” (VN-SIPA) held its second meeting in Hanoi on April 14 with the
participation of representatives from certain ministries, sectors, and
localities.
Addressing the meeting, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le
Cong Thanh highlighted the project’s support in implementing Vietnam’s nationally
determined contributions (NDC)
and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
In order to speed up the project, he asked
participants to make proposals and discuss the 2021 plan, especially activities
relating to State management over climate change and the enhancing of Vietnam’s
role and responsibility as a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Meanwhile, Weert Borner, Deputy Ambassador of Germany in
Vietnam, said that Vietnam was one of the first countries to build an action
plan to realise the Paris Agreement and one of the first to submit and update
its NDC.
He held that the VN-SIPA supports Vietnam in creating the
necessary suitable conditions for the deal, to mitigate the impact of climate
change and bring about environmental and socio-economic benefits for the
country.
Pham Van Tan, Vice Director of the Climate Change
Administration at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that
as COVID-19 is still a major issue, ministries and localities should prepare
alternative 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 of
the first 20 countries to do so.
The four-year VN-SIPA project was approved by the
Prime Minister on April 3, 2019 and has a total cost of 10.3 million EUR (12.31
million USD), funded by non-refundable ODA from Germany. It aims to strengthen
the 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 climate
change response programme in the revised Law on Environmental Protection 2020 as well as
climate change management documents and sectoral plans on climate change
response. It has defined solutions in the central provinces of Quang Binh and
Ha Tinh based on the ecosystem./.