Young Vietnamese join a launch event of a special report entitled: ‘Youth for Climate Action in Việt Nam’ along with a Dialogue with the COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma. Photo courtesy of UNDP Việt Nam

ĐÀ NẴNG — A special report entitled: ‘Youth for Climate Action in Việt Nam’ along with a Dialogue with the COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma, has been launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

UNDP said the special report was part of the UNDP Global Programme ‘Climate Promise’ with the participation of the UNDP Resident Representative in Việt Nam, Caitlin Wiesen, and the COP26 President-Designate, Alok Sharma, during his official visit to Việt  Nam and more than 200 Vietnamese young people.

The Special Report was co-written by 20 young authors from diverse backgrounds, representing approximately 900 young people from the three regions of the North, Central and the South of Việt Nam.

According to the report, young people face four major bottlenecks in undertaking climate action including financial constraints; lack of support from stakeholders; skills limitations; and technological limitations.

To deal with these bottlenecks, the report recommends ten accelerators, which comprise establishing a youth network for climate, and launching a climate learning hub. These accelerators were incorporated into a roadmap towards COP26 and action goals for 2022 - 2025 to enhance the contribution from the youth to Việt Nam’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

The Dialogue with the COP26 President-Designate offered the unique opportunity for the youth representatives to handover the special report to the President-Designate, share their views on climate change, as well as discuss actions to advance the youth agenda in the lead-up to the upcoming Global Youth Summit in Milan, Italy in September 2021 and the COP26 in Glasgow, UK in November 2021.

The youth representatives that participated in the dialogue also proposed innovative ways to strengthen youth’s role in the national and international climate agenda. Key discussion points also included Vietnamese youth’s mobilisation for COP26 and beyond as part of the global momentum-building ‘Youth4Climate: Driving Ambitions’ programme.

Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Việt Nam, said: “Youth are a powerhouse of passion, creativity and innovation. As recommended in the youth report we invite all partners to join in aligning programmes and mechanisms to accelerate an enabling environment where youth can fully assume their role as agents of change for climate action.”

“Responding to climate change requires the efforts of all ministries, sectors, local agencies, businesses, individuals and communities, among which the youth plays an essential role. Every action, even the smallest, has an immense impact, contributing to changing awareness and creating motivation for the participation of the whole society,” said Phạm Văn Tân, Deputy Director General of DCC.

The COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma sent a message to Vietnamese youth: “This is a passionate report which speaks from the heart of youth, sets out some very clear ideas what we ought to be doing together to tackle climate change. The future does indeed belong to young people around the world. That’s why it’s vital that your voice is heard loud and clear.”

“This report is also one which speaks with passion - the passion of youth. Whatever policies world leaders come up with, whatever plan they have, they must always think of the planet first. Frankly that’s also the message that comes through your report. It is the report that says pick the planet.”

Young people in Đà Nẵng city join actions in reducing waste in the environment and climate change. VNS Photo Công Thành

Hoàng Ngọc Xuân Mai, who is a lead author of the report, said: “The co-authors and I are more excited than ever to push through the bottlenecks and enhance youth climate action in Việt Nam. We see climate change not only as an existential threat, but also as an accelerator for innovations.

“We invite everyone, no matter how old they are, to read the report and take bold actions for the planet.”

Khang A Tủa, a Mông ethnic youth climate leader, said: “Through discussions with stakeholders, we would like to affirm the importance of mobilising youth from every corner to respond to climate change in Việt Nam with the right policies and capacity-building tools. As a first step, I am excited to see climate policy-makers, both national and global, willing to cooperate with young people in climate action.”

During the event’s launch late last month, young people gave their recommendations on policy options to unlock youth accelerators and seek opportunities to strengthen youth contribution directly to the implementation of the national climate targets with the Government and other stakeholders.

So far, the youth groups have already succeeded in launching an independent ‘Youth Climate Network' and are currently developing a Youth4Climate Learning Hub with the support of UNDP Việt Nam. Young Vietnamese are eager for the Youth for Climate Innovation Contest to raise ambitions for COP26 this year.

UNDP Việt Nam also said the UNDP ‘Youth4Climate Initiative’ aims to strengthen the capacity of existing youth representatives and networks to advance climate actions at national and international forums, through consistent and coordinated efforts and enhanced collaboration with the Government, UN agencies, development partners, private sectors and CSOs in future climate initiatives and policies in Việt Nam. — VNS