The commitment of Vietnam Government to the Paris Agreement CoP 15 opens an opportunity for Green Growth Economy/Development in the country with the Decision 1775/QD-TTg dated on November 21, 2012 on Approval of Project of Green House Gas Emission Management, Management of Carbon Credit Business Activities to the World Market. However Green Growth Economy/Development requires comprehensive Green House Gas Inventory (GHGI) system to inform green growth targets and policy for all sectors and regions in Vietnam.
In December 2015, the Prime Minister published a decision which mandated the development of a National GHG Inventory System (NIS), enabling Viet Nam to independently produce future GHGI system on a regular basis. International experience helped to inform the published NIS and created a strong technical foundation for its implementation. There is now an urgent need for targeted and hands-on technical support to help the government put in place the specific structures, processes and expertise needed to implement this work, and realize the outcome of a fully-functioning, effective NIS for independent reporting of high quality GHG data.
The development of the NIS will also be a key step in improving the transparency needed on GHG emissions to facilitate and accelerate low carbon investment from international and Vietnam financial institutions and companies.
As the ASEAN-U.S. Fellow supporting the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), one of my key actions is to support my host organization (the Centre for Climate Change Technology) to establish an activity data database, develop technical guidance to support the data collection templates, outlining key activities, recommended data, units, and sources of information, methods, roadmap to improve the activity data collection process to 2020 and other relevant information to support the ‘real-world’ use of the data collection templates on Livestock sub-sector.
Bridging between the current situation of GHG Inventory and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) requirement GHGI system for Livestock sub-sector
A questionnaire survey and focus group discussions had been undertaken with managers, researchers and policy makers in Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to review the existing strategies, plans for CC mitigation, to analyze the livestock sub-sector sustainable development goals, green growth targets and gather the opinions of how GHGI system for livestock sub-sector should be, how Vietnam conditions and IPCC requirement should be taken into account. A series of workshop were organized with different related organizations within MARD such as Livestock Department, Institute of Agriculture Environment, and Department of Science, Technology and Environment and other related stakeholders from line Ministries: General Statistic Office, Ministry of Investment and Planning, Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and researchers from Universities (e.g University of Agriculture)
Results from survey and focus group discussion indicated that all stakeholders expressed the need of institutional arrangements, technical guidance for periodical GHG inventory. That also pointed out some challenges and obstacles related to capacity as the capacity at national level to develop and implement mitigation policies in Vietnam. Data lacking and inconsistence are other areas that we need to heavily consider when design GHGI system for livestock sub-sector.
As a result of many consultation workshops a GHGI system for livestock sub-sector has been proposed as below:
The proposed system aims to promote the tight collaboration between Department/Unit/Institute within MARD and coordinate with other related stakeholders from different Ministries in GHG Inventory for Livestock sub-sector. The proposed system has been received positive feedback from multi-stakeholders for it appropriateness with Vietnam conditions.
I felt that I am so lucky to have ASEAN-US fellowship which brought to me a valuable opportunity to work with MONRE and contribute my knowledge and skills in policy making process to GHGI System for Livestock Sub-sector. That opportunity is hardly realised through the formal administrative system. Thanks for ASEAN-US program.
About the Author:
Ms. Nguyen Quynh Anh recently worked as a researcher with the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategy Studies, at Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology. Her experience spans the fields of climate change adaptation, resilience, environmental decision making and climate risk communication.
Through the ASEAN S&T Fellowship, she hopes to hopes to take part in the development Green House Gas Inventory System Guideline for Agriculture Sector in Vietnam with various actors, gain greater exposure to national and regional policy making and help to bridge the gap between research and policy on climate change mitigation.
Ms. Nguyen has a M.Sc. in Environmental Management, Hanoi University of Natural Science (2002) and Advanced Master’s degree in Human Ecology, University of Brussels (2009).