Government plan aims to improve adaptation to climate change

Enhancing State management of climate change is one of the major measures in the national plan on climate change adaptation for 2021-2030, with a vision towards 2050, recently issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

In implementing the Government’s Resolution 93/NQ-CP in 2016 adopting the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the plan emphasised the integration of climate change adaptation into strategies and planning schemes, investment in adaptive activities, science and technologies, and improvement of public awareness of this issue.

It also defined tasks and solutions to mitigate disaster risks and losses, and enhance preparedness for natural disasters and extreme weather caused by climate change, which the document said to be “one of the most dangerous threats to humanity, with an increasing scope of impact globally,” and required “urgent action".

During its first phase from 2021-2025, the plan will focus on completing mechanisms and policies on climate change adaptation, making legal and technical preparations to promote the integration of climate change into policies, strategies and planning schemes, and implementing prioritised tasks and solutions.

Preparations will be made for a law on climate change, the plan said, while climate-resilient agriculture models, efforts to preserve biodiversity and enhance regeneration capacity of natural ecosystems, along with better forecasts for natural calamities such as flooding, landslide, coastal erosion and saline intrusion will be promoted.

From 2026-2030, greater efforts will be made to improve State management of climate change and enhancing the resilience of infrastructure, economic sectors, the community and the ecosystem.

Actions that serve the dual purposes of mitigating climate change-related risks and boosting socio-economic development will be promoted.

Between 2030 and 2050, the plan will concentrate on improving the adaptive capacity of people and infrastructure, and ensuring food, energy and water security, gender equality, social welfare, public health, and sustainable national development amidst climate change and natural disasters.

In this period, Việt Nam plans to be able to use the opportunities brought about by climate change to serve socio-economic development and contribute to the international community in dealing with climate change.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance are the three focal agencies in charge of deploying, monitoring, reviewing and devising a budget for the plan.

Việt Nam is one of the countries worst affected by climate change, and the Government has identified it as a risk that threatens to ruin the country’s sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts./.