Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh delivered the opening speech at the workshop

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, highlighted that green development, energy transition, and emission reduction have become are global trends. He emphasized that Vietnamese Government is making significant efforts to simultaneously foster economic development, fulfill commitments, and responsibly contribute to addressing climate change alongside the international community. Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh also underscored Vietnam's National Strategy on Climate Change, aiming for net zero emissions by 2050. 

Vietnam also updated its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in 2022, targeting an unconditional reduction of emissions by 15.8% by 2030 and a conditional reduction of up to 43.5% compared to business-as-usual scenarios. These are ambitious yet challenging goals that demand immense resources in finance and technology. 

According to Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, in order to materialize these aims, Vietnam has swiftly initiated actions across the entirety of its political, economic, and social apparatus. Firstly, the National Power Development Plan for the 2021-2030 period has been adjusted and issued, with a vision towards 2050. This move aims to ensure the successful implementation of energy transition objectives, accompanied by efforts to modernize production, establish smart grids, and manage advanced power systems in alignment with green transformation trends, emission reduction, and global scientific and technological development. By 2050, the proportion of renewable energy in electricity production is targeted to reach 67.5-71.5%.

Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh along with the workshop participants

Secondly, Vietnam has vigorously promoted the application of management solutions, technologies, equipment, and techniques for energy-efficient and cost-effective use, aiming to reduce input energy costs, lower production costs, enhance business efficiency, and simultaneously decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Thirdly, Vietnamese ministries, sectors, and localities have been researching, developing, exploiting, and utilizing new energy sources, renewable energy, and clean energy such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass, green hydrogen, and others… Fourthly, all economic components have begun implementing comprehensive solutions for resource management, exploitation, efficient use, minimizing waste of input materials for production activities, minimizing environmental waste, and maximizing opportunities for applying circular economy and sharing economy models… Fifthly, Vietnam announced the “Just Energy Transition Partnership” (JETP) at the end of 2022 with a group of international partners.

Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Le Cong Thanh, also pointed out that the foundation of the green transition process includes energy conversion, phasing out the use of fossil fuels, and developing renewable energy in Vietnam. However, this cannot be realized without widespread cooperation among partners and countries in the region and globally.

Therefore, Vietnam looks forward to deepening cooperation with Canada in efforts to transition to clean energy, phase out fossil fuels, enhance renewable energy targets, and strengthen societal and economic resilience. This collaboration aims to ensure an efficient and beneficial green transition process for the people and all participating organizations, partners, and countries.

"Green transition must lead to transformative change. Now more than ever, it is time for nations worldwide to enhance cooperation, collectively overcome barriers and challenges with a spirit of 'harmonious interests, shared risks,' so that none of us miss out on any breakthrough opportunities," Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh emphasized.

Canadian Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade, and Economic Development Mary Ng delivered a speech.

Addressing the workshop, Minister Mary Ng highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts in the journey towards achieving net-zero emissions, pledging Canada's commitment as comprehensive partners to accompany and support Vietnam in transitioning to a circular economy. Additionally, Canada is ready to share knowledge and experiences in climate change, renewable energy, and carbon management, aiming to deepen bilateral relations further.

Both nations are committed to advancing connectivity between relevant agencies and businesses in the near future, elevating mutual benefits in greenhouse gas emissions management, carbon markets, and technological innovation such as carbon capture and utilization. This signals a promising direction for bilateral cooperation.

At the workshop, delegates listened attentively and engaged in discussions on several important topics, including Vietnam's climate change policies and its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions, an overview of Canada's ecosystems, plans, and actions towards achieving net-zero emissions, legal regulations on carbon management in certain Canadian localities, Canada's Net Zero emissions accountability act and progress monitoring on emission reduction, as well as the role of specialized organizations in climate governance.

The workshop attendees discussed green development issues.

Moreover, workshop participants also attended panel discussions on "Clean energy transition: Strategies and policies for emission reduction" and "Greenhouse gas emission reduction in agriculture," as well as engaged in a roundtable discussion on "Opportunities for Vietnam-Canada cooperation."

According to the organizer's assessment, the outcomes of the workshop are expected to facilitate dialogues and knowledge exchange between Vietnam and Canada on climate change commitments, plans, and goals in mutually concerned areas. These areas include carbon management, carbon markets, carbon utilization and storage, cessation and repurposing of coal-fired power plants, as well as greenhouse gas emission reduction in agriculture.

Additionally, the workshop has truly provided opportunities for sharing perspectives, fostering networking, identifying methods to apply Canada's expertise in supporting Vietnam's net-zero emission commitments, as well as identifying cooperation opportunities between Canada and Vietnam from both development and commercial cooperation perspectives.

Thu Huyen