Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang attends a meeting to celebrate the International Mother Earth Day. Photo: VOV reporter in the US

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Vietnam’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), attended a meeting in New York on April 24 to celebrate International Mother Earth Day, as Vice President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 77), VNA reported.

Addressing the event, the President of the UNGA 77 Csaba Kőrösi expressed concern about the impact of unsustainable economic development, production, and consumption on the earth.

He also emphasized the need to reduce impacts on the environment, respect biological limits, recognise the interdependence between humans and ecosystems, and look for new solutions to environmental issues.

Representatives from countries have reaffirmed their interest in and commitment to promoting the protection of the earth, responding to climate change, protecting global biological systems and biodiversity, and promoting harmony with nature and the earth, thus realizing sustainable development goals (SDGs) and moving towards a more sustainable world.

They stressed that these goals need to be achieved through a variety of measures such as enhancing global cooperation and multilateralism, securing resources and scientific knowledge, transferring technology, building capacity, and promoting joint global efforts to address existing challenges.

Designated over a decade ago, International Mother Earth Day (April 22) is an occasion for countries worldwide to raise a common voice recognizing the Earth as the “common home”, point out the need to promote the harmony between human beings and nature, and encourage global efforts on environmental protection for a green and safe planet of sustainable and prosperous development.

In 2009, the UNGA decided to designate April 22 as International Mother Earth Day with the aim of increasing public awareness and global efforts in protecting the earth and biodiversity and ensuring harmonization between humans, other creatures, and the earth. Photo: AFP/VNA

In Vietnam, a country highly vulnerable to climate change, widespread extreme weather conditions have become more frequent in recent years.

The impacts of climate change are causing challenges to climate security, posing latent risks to national stability and development, and triggering waves of migration.

The Government of Vietnam ratified the Paris Climate Accords in 2016 and issued a plan to implement the agreement. At the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), the Vietnamese Prime Minister announced Vietnam’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

As part of efforts to realize the commitment, Vietnam has significantly increased its contribution to greenhouse gas emission reductions in the updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2022. Specifically, the unconditional emission reduction rate was increased to 15.8% in 2022 from 9% in the 2020 NCD.

The conditional emission reduction rate was also raised to 43.5% in 2022 from 27% in the 2020 NDC, he noted, attributing the results to the support from the project and partners.

After four years of implementation, the project has made important contributions, especially in consultations, to the building of the policy framework regarding climate change response as well as the updating of the NDC, while helping strengthen capacity for national contact points, ministries and localities in managing and coordinating in implementing the NDC and the Paris Agreement.

Besides, the project has helped build four metering, reporting and verifying systems on GHG emission reduction, while assisting ministries and sectors to design policies and plans in the field, Tang The Cuong, director of the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said at a conference held in Hanoi on March 31.

Ho Chi Minh City, RoK Foster Cooperation in Environmental Protection Ho Chi Minh hopes can learn from the RoK’s experience in building policies, standards and roadmaps to achieve goals of the sustainable development strategy

Vietnam, UK Sign MoU on Biodiverse Landscapes Fund The UK and Vietnam officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise cooperation on the UK's Biodiverse Landscapes Fund.

Australian Expert Honoured for Contributions to Vietnam’s Natural Resources, Environment Dr. Michael Parsons has been honoured with a friendship medal for his active and effective contributions to sustainable development of Vietnam’s natural resources and environment.