Youth4Climate Conference (Photo courtesy of organising board)TheYouth4Climate Initiative is implemented under UNDP “Climate Promise,” a globalprogramme through which UNDP is committed to supporting 115 countries inenhancing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2020.
InVietnam, the Youth4Climate Initiative aims to strengthen the capacity ofexisting youth representatives and networks to advance climate actions atnational and international forums, through consistent and coordinated effortsand enhanced collaboration with the Government, UN agencies, developmentpartners, private sector, and civil society organisations in future climateinitiatives and policies.
At theConference, the results of the recent global UNDP’s survey – “People’s ClimateVote” – were shared. Similar to the majority of respondents across the world,64 percent of respondents from Vietnam declared that they are facing a globalclimate emergency, with 60 percent of them suggesting urgent responses. ThePeoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate changeever conducted, with the participation of 1.2 million people from 50 differentcountries.
In hisremarks, Pham Van Tan, Deputy Director-General of the MONRE’s Department ofClimate Change, said climate change response has remained among of the top missionsof the whole political system. Vietnam adopted and enforced the Paris Agreement shortlyafter it was signed in 2015, he said.
He furthernoted that Vietnam’s commitments to the global response to climate change were alsoincluded in the revised Law on Environmental Protection adopted by the NationalAssembly last November.
“In orderto implement the NDC targets, we need a strong will, determination, efforts andjoin collaboration from all socio-economic groups, of which Youth Union membersand youth, as our future leaders, are playing an important role,” Tan noted.
“Youth arethe powerhouse for innovation and action, and it is our role, as UNDP Vietnam,to help them reach capacity,” Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative inVietnam, highlighted. By empowering young people, Vietnam can unleash newpotential for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its NDCs in thefuture, she added.
NguyenNgoc Luong, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union shared that “weare willing to introduce new creative initiatives that can attract the massparticipation of youth and generate momentum for youth to respond to climatechange as part of their self-awareness and continuous lifestyle.”
During theconference, youth presented the key findings of the Special Report ‘Youth forClimate Action in Vietnam’, which is the first report fully led and co-writtenby 20 outstanding youth at the National Writeshop organised in December 2020.The co-authors were selected based on their outstanding performance during thethree regional Youth4Climate consultations from July to November 2020.
TheSpecial Report depicts the bottlenecks youth have faced in undertaking climateaction as well as the accelerators they identified to fast track theircontributions to the NDC implementation and the transition to a greener andlow-carbon Vietnam in four key thematic areas: (i) Climate Mitigation, (ii) ClimateAdaptation, (iii) Nature-based Solutions, and (ii) Climate Policies.
Mai Hoang,the youthlead reporter said she hopes the report will be widely shared with theGovernment of Vietnam and other stakeholders for our voices to be heard.”/.
VNA
