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In order to best support the activities of non-governmental organizations, the Vietnam Union of Science & Technology Associations (VUSTA) has been organizing annual conferences for Vietnam non-governmental organizations (VNGOs). The aim of 2010 annual conference is to exchange and to share experience in operations, advantages and difficulties in activities of VNGOs in a number of areas affecting the country’s development process, to discuss the recommendations regarding the development of policy environment for NGOs in Vietnam and synthesize the petitions submitted to governmental agencies.
Especially in 2010, climate change issues are attracting the attention of both governmental and non-governmental organizations dues to the impacts and the risks might have on sustainable development; therefore, on June 30, VUSTA organized the seminar on climate change – one of the four technical contents of 2010 annual conference.
The seminar on climate change was attended by over 40 representatives from NGOs which are interested in and involved in activities related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change, among those are six representatives from provinces of Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa, Can Tho.
Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop, SRD Director, in company with Ms. Do Thi Van, head of VUSTA’s organization board, and Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Ngoc Cat, Director of Research Center for Environment and Climate Change, presided at the seminar.
Among the 3 presentations made at the seminar, SRD had the honour of presenting two articles: one by Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop on international negotiation process on climate change and updates of the UN negotiations on climate change in Bonn – June, 2010; the other by Ms. Pham Thi Bich Ngoc, Climate Change officer of SRD, on the efforts made by the Network of Vietnam non-governmental organizations and Climate Change (VNGO&CC) in response to this issue. In addition, a presentation was made by the representative from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the overall response to climate change in Vietnam. Especially in the presentation about updates of the UN recent negotiation on Climate change in Bonn, Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop said, the international negotiations were participated by over 5,500 representatives, including official delegates from governments of 185 countries, delegates from private sector, NGOs, research institutes and environmental organizations as observers. However, the negotiations showed differences in the goals of industrialized countries and developing countries. Developed countries tried to lobby for very loose regulations of controlling emissions and only committed to cut 17-25% emissions compared with the 1990 level, while developing countries demanded a cut of 40-50%. REDD+ was also a focused discussion of the negotiations in Bonn; however, most developing countries opposed the carbon market mechanism and proposed the establishment of “Multilateral Climate Fund”.
The presentations at VUSTA seminar also mentioned the current situations, the impacts and the risks of climate change to Vietnam. Accordingly, the consequences are considered serious and a present danger affecting the targets of poverty reduction, the Millennium Development Goals and the sustainable development of the country, particularly the fields of water resources, agriculture and food security, health and coastal plains will be the most vulnerable and the most affected areas by climate change.
Currently, the Government has participated in a number of conventions related to climate change and issued a number of legal documents and strategic plans to deal with this problem. Vietnam is one of the few nations which have built and deployed the “National target program on coping with climate change”. Besides, Vietnam has created and announced the scenarios of climate change and rising sea level as the basis for the ministries and regions to make proposals and implement plans to meet this challenge.
In parallel with the activities of the government, NGOs, donors, and international community have also come up with a number of initiatives, programs, projects to migrate and adapt to climate change. Especially, the Network of VNGO&CC founded in 2009 is currently a collection of about 140 organizations which are interested in or have been engaged in activities related to climate change. In the short time since its foundation, the network has carried out a number of activities aimed at building capacity, encouraging participation and suggestions to state policies on climate change, such as the implementation of project Building Capacity on Climate Change for Civil Society, the organization of the Conference “Contributions of NGOs to economical and social development, to resource mobilization for sustainable development of NGOs in Vietnam”, sharing information via the website www.vngo-cc.vnand building potential faculty members on climate change…
In addition, the members of the network have also been carrying out a number of projects, programs of community intervention, as well as research and advocacy activities to support the response to climate change, such as: model of cultivation on sloping land, anti-erosion land, flying sand, jumping sand; Forest Management based on community; planting mangrove forests against coastal erosion; communication and capacity training on climate change for the community…
In the coming time, VNGO&CC will continue to carry out activities in capacity building for its members, such as training, visiting, model learning to cope with climate change, building database on climate change… as well as promoting activities of sharing knowledge, experiences and linkages with other networks to increase the effectiveness of the operations.
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