Environment
Advantage goes to Việt Nam despite disadvantages in semi-final against Singapore
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| Huế has shown it has what it takes to become a pioneer city in green and sustainable development. Photo tintuc.hues.vn |
Viet Nam News
Huế City – The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 recognised Huế as Việt Nam’s National Earth Hour Capital 2016 as part of the highly selective global Earth Hour City Challenge.
The challenge is a WWF initiative calling on cities around the globe to take action for a climate-friendly future by creating ambitious plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Huế made an extraordinary breakthrough and successfully passed the campaign’s rigorous selection criteria to become one of 18 finalists for Global Earth Hour Capital 2016, according to the WWF.
“WWF is pleased with what Huế has achieved. Huế has shown it has what it takes to become a pioneer city in green and sustainable development. Việt Nam will continue to be highly affected by climate change, and what Huế is doing should be encouraged and replicated nationwide,” said Văn Ngọc Thịnh, country director of WWF-Việt Nam.
Huế’s campaign centred on a commitment to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 compared to 2011 emission levels.
To reach the target, Huế created seven specific action plans, focusing on urban greening, green tourism development, effective disposal of trash and wastewater, intelligent public lighting systems, renewable energy, and environmentally friendly construction materials.
The global challenge celebrates environmentally friendly policies and initiatives that Huế and its residents are taking to become leaders in sustainable development.
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| Huế is awarded the National Earth Hour Capital 2016 distinction by the World Wildlife Fund. |
Việt Nam is taking part in the challenge for the first time with Huế as its representative city.
About 125 cities from 21 countries have also participated in WWF’s challenge this year.
Participating cities had to submit a carbon emissions report together with at least one commitment and action plan for sustainable development in environment, construction, transportation, energy, food and water.
The jury selected one city per country to be the National Earth Hour Capital 2016 to compete in the final global challenge, with the winner named Global Earth Hour Capital 2016.
Besides Huế, 17 other cities around the world were selected as finalists to be evaluated by an international jury of 17 independent experts, who selected the global winner.
Paris won the Global Earth Hour Capital 2016 for its ambitious vision and successful engagement with business, civil society and other cities on its journey toward sustainability. — VNS
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