More financial support needed to arrive at ‘net-zero emissions’

Vietnam has always engaged with international partners on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change, viewing it as an opportunity to transform towards a green, circular, and low-carbon development model, a roundtable discussion on financing for climate change held by the Ministry of Finance heard.

“Financing for combating climate change is a key task enabling the implementation of Vietnam’s plans and strategies for sustainable development, environmental protection, and green growth,” said Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha. Such financing is also needed for Vietnam to fully implement the commitments it made at COP-26, he added.

According to Ms. Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, the participation of ministries and sectors is needed to realize those commitments. “Achieving these desires requires huge resources,” she said. “This will be a major burden for the Ministry of Finance.”

Specific programs and projects are being urgently developed and reviewed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Mr. Ha said that mobilizing capital is very important given Vietnam’s tight budget.

Under the method the World Bank applies in modeling and analyzing solutions, in order for a government to both achieve growth goals and reduce emissions without one affecting the other requires substantial resources, in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

But Ms. Turk said that Vietnam’s advantage is that it can mobilize resources from the private sector.