Head of the Vietnamese National Assembly delegation to IPU-144 Vũ Hải Hà addresses the plenary meeting. —VNA/VNS Photo

JAKARTA — Việt Nam presented five proposals to promote parliament actions to achieve net-zero targets at the 144th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-144) in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

Head of the Vietnamese National Assembly delegation to IPU-144 Vũ Hải Hà said national parliaments must carry out policies in climate change adaptation more robustly and in tandem with the Paris Agreement to meet net-zero targets and intensify supervision of sustainable development goals.

He said parliaments should strengthen cooperation based on fairness and responsibility, considering each country’s capacity and conditions, especially collaboration among IPU member parliaments and international organisations to pool resources, share experience and provide technical and financial support parliaments’ capacity to respond to climate change.

The Vietnamese legislator said that more developed countries needed to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and provide developing countries with technical, financial and technological assistance.

He said parliaments also needed to strengthen legal work, as well as allocate budgets to ensure climate commitments, emission reduction and net-zero targets in accordance with the development of each country.

The IPU should work with the Secretariat of the UN Frame Convention on Climate Change to build mechanisms for sharing information and experience and creating efficient models to implement commitments, he said.

Hà said parliamentarians needed to connect with people and raise awareness of the long-term benefits of global initiatives on reducing greenhouse gas emissions reduction, encourage the development of public-private partnerships, and promote enterprise efforts and creativity.

The Vietnamese delegate also warned that climate change had reached an alarming level, with severe impacts of climate change like sea level rises, extreme weather and droughts, which were threatening global food security and biodiversity, and increasing poverty, unemployment, social inequality, instability and conflicts.

Such serious challenges require countries to solidify their commitments and take actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and follow a sustainable and inclusive green economic recovery process in the post-pandemic period, he said.

The legislator, who is head of the Vietnamese NA’s Committee for External Affairs, underlined that the Vietnamese NA and Government were resolved to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, quickly raise the ratio of renewable energy and build a suitable roadmap to switch to a green, circular and low-carbon economy. — VNS