Workshop hears emissions are at alarming levels and increasing.
Vietnam has been ranked in 31st place out of more than 200 countries and territories around the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, a workshop entitled “The Last Chance to Save the World’s Climate? Climate Negotiation at COP 21 and Voices from Vietnam”, organized by non-government organizations and the Embassy of France, was told.
Experts at the workshop said that although there is no obligation on Vietnam to cut its emissions, the amount it releases is quite alarming and continuously increasing, from 21 million tons of CO2 in 1990 to 150 million tons in 2000.
It is estimated that CO2 emissions will increase to 300 million tons by 2020. The country’s energy sector will produce the most, at 141,171 million tons, or 53.1 per cent of the total, followed by agriculture with 88,355 million tons, or 33.2 per cent.
Increases in greenhouse gas emissions have caused more extreme weather phenomena in Vietnam. Over the last decade natural disasters such as storms, floods, landslides, drought, salinity, and others have killed more than 9,000 people and caused losses estimated at 1.5 per cent of GDP each year.
To limit its emissions, experts said that Vietnam should accelerate the implementation of green growth strategies, including the national program on saving and efficiently using energy, enhance the capacity of its industry to control emissions, and strengthen its adaptability to climate change.