In this webinar, the second of an ongoing series, Dr Hak Mao and Dr Chu Thi Thanh Huong provided updates on the key features of Cambodia’s and Vietnam’s 2020 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) respectively.
CLIMATE CHANGE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Friday, 25 September 2020 – The Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme (CCSEAP) hosted the second webinar of its ongoing series on “Southeast Asian Countries’ Updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)” featuring Cambodia and Vietnam.
Dr Hak Mao (Director of the Department of Climate Change, General Secretariat of the National Council for Sustainable Development, Ministry of Environment, Cambodia) and Dr Chu Thi Thanh Huong (Director of the Science Technology and International Cooperation Division, Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Vietnam and Secretariat for the Vietnam Negotiation Team under the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) presented their respective updated NDCs, long-term low emissions strategies as well as opportunities and challenges in the implementation of their NDCs going forward. The session was moderated by Ms Sharon Seah, (Coordinator, CCSEAP and the ASEAN Studies Centre).
Cambodia
Dr Mao opened with a brief overview of Cambodia’s 2015 Intended NDC (INDC), noting that it included both greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and adaptation targets. Cambodia’s INDC highlighted the importance of an integrated and multi-sector approach for adaptation efforts in key sectors such as agriculture, biodiversity, disaster risk reduction, health, infrastructure, and capacity building. Meanwhile, its proposed mitigation efforts included emissions reduction actions in targeted sectors including energy, manufacturing, and transport, and an objective to increase forest cover to 60% of Cambodia’s land area by 2030 through land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) activities.
Dr Mao explained the process of developing Cambodia’s updated NDC and shared its achieved milestones since launching the revision process in March 2020. Based on aggregated inputs from line ministries with support from development partners, 83 adaptation actions (up from 13 in the INDC) and 67 mitigation actions will be listed in the updated NDC. Additionally, Cambodia has endeavoured to address and incorporate cross-cutting issues such as gender, youth, and private sector involvement in its updated NDC. Dr Mao shared that Cambodia carried out an analysis of how its NDCs can impact the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the revision process.
Cambodia expects to submit its updated NDC by October 2020. Dr Mao closed his presentation by noting Cambodia’s plans to design an integrated and detailed Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system as well as enhance coordination among existing MRV systems in order to implement the NDC.
Vietnam
Dr Huong began her presentation by providing an outline of Vietnam’s 2015 INDC. She then highlighted some key features of Vietnam’s updated NDC which was submitted on 11 September 2020 to the UNFCCC, including updated mitigation and adaptation contributions; an analysis of the synergies and co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation on sustainable development; indicators to facilitate regular monitoring and evaluation of NDC implementation; a national MRV for mitigation actions and a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for adaptation actions; clarifications of the advantages, disadvantages and an implementation plan for the NDC given current international and national contexts as well as the appropriate measures to be taken; and gender mainstreaming.
The updated NDC’s adaptation component identifies strategic tasks, which are consolidated in Vietnam’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP), to improve adaptive capacity, enhance resilience, and reduce risks caused by climate change. The NDC also includes stronger mitigation targets in the sectors of energy, agriculture, LULUCF, waste, and industrial processes. Using an updated base year of 2014 (from 2010 in the INDC) for the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, Vietnam has targeted to reduce GHG emissions by 9% (up from 8% in the INDC) compared to the BAU scenario by 2030 with its own domestic resources, and up to 27% (up from 25% in the INDC) conditioned on international support.
Dr Huong expressed that more support in the form of capacity building, financial and technical assistance, and the establishment of MRV and M&E systems is needed in order to implement the NDC. She shared some lessons gleaned from Vietnam’s process of updating its NDC, including in its engagement and coordination of stakeholders as well as the collection and compilation of updated research and inputs. Lastly, she stated that Vietnam intends to update the National Climate Change Strategy for period 2021-2050, including the implementation of NDC’s targets, requirements of Paris Agreement and other international commitments and submit to the Prime Minister for approval in 2021.
The webinar concluded with a Q&A session where audience members from the business, policy, and research sectors engaged the speakers on issues including the increase of the mitigation target of Vietnam’s updated NDC; enforcement efforts to target illegal logging in Cambodia; strategies for mainstreaming cross-cutting issues in Vietnam and Cambodia’s updated NDCs; how inter-agency coordination on climate action has been impacted by the use of technology to organise meetings during COVID-19; and national budgets for climate efforts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.