Vietnamlawmagazine

Nguyen Thi Hong Yen

International Law Faculty

Hanoi Law University

Climate change is the most serious crisis the human civilization has ever faced, posing great challenges to the development and prosperity of almost all countries in the world in the 21^st century. Aware of this issue, the international community has taken crucial actions to establish a common legal framework for globally coordinated response to climate change. The 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (KP) on reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are significant achievements in this field.

Vietnam has early joined the global community in climate change response efforts, which, on the one hand, expresses the country’s willingness and determination to engage in the settlement of international issues and, on the other hand, brings about international assistance for the country to deal with its own environmental issues for sustainable development.

Vietnam ratified the UNFCCC in 1994 and the KP in 2002. This article reviews the implementation of Vietnam’s commitments under UNFCCC and KP in terms of both the legislative process and law enforcement practices and puts forward some recommendations for better implementing these commitments.

Formulation of policies and laws on climate change response

Although Vietnam is a non-annex I party to the UNFCCC, it has undertaken to implementing some conventional obligations such as conducting meteorological observation and developing a system of meteorological data archives; making national GHG inventories for all industries and sectors of the economy; and taking climate change into account in relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions. Vietnam has also committed to complying with Article 4 of the KP and to voluntarily participating in the clean development mechanism (CDM) under Article 12 of the KP.

In order to create a legal foundation for realizing these commitments, hundreds of legal documents have been promulgated.

In 2005, the Law on Environmental Protection was enacted, affirming that the Vietnamese State will boost cooperation with neighboring and regional countries in natural resource management and exploitation and environmental protection and adopt policies to encourage organizations and individuals to cooperate with foreign entities and overseas Vietnamese so as to improve the effectiveness of environmental protection efforts and enhance the position of Vietnam in the international community.

In 2006, the national target program on energy conservation and efficiency was adopted, setting the objective of reducing 3-5% and 5-8% of the total national energy consumption during 2006-2010 and 2011-2015, respectively.

In April 2007, a plan for implementation of the KP during 2007-2010 was approved with a view to tapping all resources for fast and sustainable economic development in combination with environmental protection. Later that year, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 130/2007/QD-TTg, specifying financial mechanisms and policies applicable to CDM projects. Accordingly, CDM projects are eligible for tax, land use levy and land rent incentives, while products of CMD projects in some priority industries will be considered for price subsidies.

In December 2008, Vietnam approved its national target program to respond to climate change, establishing the strategic objectives of assessing the impacts of climate change on industries, sectors and provinces in each period and working out feasible action plans to effectively respond to climate change for sustainable development. The program affirms that responding to climate change is the mission of the whole political system and the entire society.

Last but not least, in December 2011, the national strategy for climate change was adopted to serve as a basis for other relevant strategies and master plans.

Being compiled in conformity with fundamental principles of international law, especially the principle of pacta sunt servanda, all important documents on environmental protection in general and climate change in particular contain the provision that Vietnam will strictly observe treaties which it has acceded to and in case of differences between these treaties and domestic laws, the former prevail. Besides, as authorities have managed to take local realities into consideration in the process of formulating climate change policies and strategies and to work out specific implementation solutions, these policies and strategies are quite feasible.

However, limitations still exist. Climate change regulations are numerous but scattered in too many documents. There are not yet mechanisms for coordination among ministries, sectors and localities and specific measures to boost the involvement of other stakeholders in climate change adaptation and response activities. Penalties are not severe enough to prevent violations of regulations on climate change. Finally, climate change issues have not yet been properly integrated into development policies, programs and plans of industries and sectors.

Implementation of UNFCCC and KP commitments

In Vietnam, the Ministry of National Resources and Environment is the agency in charge of implementing UNFCCC and KP commitments. The Ministry has set up a climate change office to coordinate activities under the UNFCCC and KP nationwide.

The country has so far conducted three national GHG inventories in 1994, 1998 and 2000 for five sectors, namely energy, industrial processes; agriculture; land use/land use change and forestry; and waste, and submitted two national climate change reports to the UNFCCC. It has also formulated national climate change and sea level rise scenarios and carried out response activities in some vulnerable localities, including the Mekong River delta.

A system of climate change observatories has been developed at central, regional and local levels. According to the country’s second national report submitted to the UNFCCC in 2010, Vietnam has 174 surface meteorological stations, 248 hydrological stations, 17 oceano-meteorological stations and 393 independent rain-measuring points. It has also built a system of specialized meteorological stations, including 10 aero-meteorological observatories, six weather radar stations, 29 agro-meteorological stations, 21 marine hydro-meteorological stations and 396 rain-measuring stations.

According to the 2000 GHG inventory data, the total GHG emission of Vietnam increased to 150.9 million tons of CO₂ equivalent in 2000 from 103.8 million tons in 1994, mainly from three major sources: agriculture, 43.1%, the energy sector (including transportation), 35%, and land use/land use change and forestry, 10%. Based on these figures, a number of GHG emission reduction plans have been developed, targeting an impressive GHG emission reduction of around 3,200 million tons of CO₂ equivalent. To this end, scientific researches have been conducted to gradually reduce reliance on energy sources which cause greenhouse effect and replace fossil fuels with renewable energies such as solar energy, wind power, biogas and biomass. At present, Vietnam ranks seventh and sixth in the world by the number of CMD projects registered by the CMD Executive Board and by the volume of certified emission reductions (CERs), respectively. It has 56 CDM projects with a total emission reduction potential of 25.2 million tons of CO₂ equivalent and over 6.6 million carbon credits already granted.

International cooperation has been promoted. Many important research projects, such as those to formulate two national climate change reports, study the national strategy on CDM and improve GHG inventory capacity, have been carried out with international assistance and cooperation. Vietnam has also proactively participated in international climate change conferences such as meetings of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties and climate change forums within the framework of the ASEAN and APEC.

Besides positive achievements, the country still faces certain problems in the implementation of UNFCCC and KP obligations. Professional coordination and information exchange between relevant agencies remain loose. Most CDM projects are related to hydropower plants, landfill methane recovery and forest biomass, while the number of projects with high and eco-friendly technologies is few. Difficulties are also seen in the training of high-quality human resources for climate change response. Vietnam still lacks experienced climate change specialists while funding, mostly coming from foreign donors, is insufficient. Additionally, the communication and dissemination of climate change knowledge has not yet been properly carried out, therefore, public involvement in climate change response activities remains modest.

Some recommendations

As climate change response constitutes a common but differentiated responsibility of all countries around the world, Vietnam, from its position, should focus on some solutions to properly perform its obligations and commitments.

Internationally, the country should further accelerate bilateral and multilateral cooperation on climate change adaptation and response; actively participate in the elaboration of a new global agreement in replacement of the KP after 2012; comply with legal obligations under the UNFCCC and KP; and take advantage of international assistance to carry out measures to reduce GHG emission and increase the application of clean technologies.

At the national level, Vietnam should further complete the legal system by scrutinizing and making proper adjustments to policies and laws on climate change adaptation and response; integrating climate change issues into regional and local socio-economic development strategies and plans; and promulgating a climate change law. It should also increase the involvement of the whole political system in climate change response activities. It is also necessary to formulate and perfect programs and plans of action for the implementation of climate change treaties in the coming time.

The relationship between socio-economic development and climate change response must be properly addressed. Climate change response is time- and money-consuming, especially for Vietnam - a developing country which still relies on development assistance sources from the outside. It is the reason behind half-hearted climate change response attempts over recent years. However, as the XI^th National Party Congress’s Resolution has stated that “protecting the environment, taking the initiative in preventing national disasters and effectively responding to climate change” are major tasks of the Party and the State during 2011-2015, competent authorities should work out more specific plans and balance funding sources for both socio-economic development and climate change response.

To prevent and mitigate possible consequences, the country should build and effectively operate a climate change and sea level rise control system and modernize hydro-meteorological observation and forecasting technologies so as to give early warnings and forecasts of weather extremes. Due attention should be paid to forestation, increasing forest quality and forest coverage to prevent desertification and soil deterioration and assure food, water resource and energy security in the climate change era.

Human resources training and public communication should be intensified so as to increase climate change response capacity and knowledge for all, from policymakers and employees of central and local administrations to the commons.

Being one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, Vietnam should further promote cooperation with other countries and international organizations in the implementation of UNFCCC and KP; take the initiative in formulating multilateral and bilateral climate change agreements; and enhance external information and share information on trans-boundary issues so as to assure the harmony of interests among countries.-