The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vienam, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCMCYU) co-organised the Youth4Climate Conference, which marked the kick-off of the Youth4Climate Initiative in Vietnam.

Youth4Climate Conference (Photo courtesy of organising board)

The Youth4Climate Initiative is implemented under UNDP “Climate Promise,” a global programme through which UNDP is committed to supporting 115 countries in enhancing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2020.

In Vietnam, the Youth4Climate Initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of existing youth representatives and networks to advance climate actions at national and international forums, through consistent and coordinated efforts and enhanced collaboration with the Government, UN agencies, development partners, private sector, and civil society organisations in future climate initiatives and policies.

At the Conference, the results of the recent global UNDP’s survey – “People’s Climate Vote” – were shared. Similar to the majority of respondents across the world, 64% of respondents from Vietnam declared that they are facing a global climate emergency, with 60% of them suggesting urgent responses. The Peoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted, with the participation of 1.2 million people from 50 different countries.

In his remarks, Pham Van Tan, Deputy Director-General of the MONRE’s Department of Climate Change, said climate change response has remained among of the top missions of the whole political system. Vietnam adopted and enforced the Paris Agreement shortly after it was signed in 2015, he said.

He further noted that Vietnam’s commitments to the global response to climate change were also included in the revised Law on Environmental Protection adopted by the National Assembly last November.

“In order to implement the NDC targets, we need a strong will, determination, efforts and join collaboration from all socio-economic groups, of which Youth Union members and youth, as our future leaders, are playing an important role,” Tan noted.

“Youth are the powerhouse for innovation and action, and it is our role, as UNDP Vietnam, to help them reach capacity,” Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, highlighted. By empowering young people, Vietnam can unleash new potential for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its NDCs in the future, she added.

Nguyen Ngoc Luong, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union shared that “we are willing to introduce new creative initiatives that can attract the mass participation of youth and generate momentum for youth to respond to climate change as part of their self-awareness and continuous lifestyle.”

During the conference, youth presented the key findings of the Special Report ‘Youth for Climate Action in Vietnam’, which is the first report fully led and co-written by 20 outstanding youth at the National Writeshop organised in December 2020. The co-authors were selected based on their outstanding performance during the three regional Youth4Climate consultations from July to November 2020.

The Special Report depicts the bottlenecks youth have faced in undertaking climate action as well as the accelerators they identified to fast track their contributions to the NDC implementation and the transition to a greener and low-carbon Vietnam in four key thematic areas: (i) Climate Mitigation, (ii) Climate Adaptation, (iii) Nature-based Solutions, and (ii) Climate Policies.

Mai Hoang, the youthlead reporter said she hopes the report will be widely shared with the Government of Vietnam and other stakeholders for our voices to be heard.”