The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Asia-Pacific conference discussing response to climate change and actions of lawmakers to realise sustainable development goals is taking place in Ho Chi Minh City from May 11-13.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen The Phuong said Vietnam will focus on fine-tuning policies to ensure sufficient legal framework for the fulfillment of the Plan of Action and Vietnam’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
At the same time, goals set in the National Action Plan to implement the Agenda 2030 will be incorporated into the 2016-2020 socio-economic development plan, he said.
According to him, in order to achieve 17 SDGs, Vietnam will face challenges arising from limited financial resources and needs support from the international community to improve its institutional capacity.
Lawmakers should have awareness of linkages among climate change, gender inequality and health care, thereby building laws to promote proper solutions to climate change response, delegates said.
Shoko Ishikawa, representative from the UN Agency on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment and head of the NA’s Committee on Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh shared the view that women are more vulnerable to climate change.
Anh said nearly 80 percent of Vietnam’s population in rural areas lives on agriculture – which is impacted by the changing climate while agricultural land accounts for about 74 percent of the total.
Participants expressed concern over increasingly serious intensity and frequency of climate change, which they said, could reduce the world’s gross domestic product by 5-10 percent.
They urged Asian-Pacific nations to work closely together and make clear commitments to climate change reduction by pooling all possible resources for the effort and strengthening collaboration in technology research and transfer.
They vowed to raise their responsibility and role in refining relevant laws and step up serious delivery of commitments and international agreements on climate change, towards realising the Paris Agreement and contributing to the sustainable development of Asian-Pacific countries.
