Special edition  » The climate for change

With its high economic growth rate during the last decade, Vietnam has proven to be a good example of poverty alleviation and effective use of overseas development aid.

However, rapid economic growth, industrialisation and urbanisation have affected the country’s environment, causing pollution in its air, water and soil, and depletion of natural resources. In this context, the wise management of natural resources and the environment is key to successful sustainable development.

This is the main focus of the Vietnam-Sweden cooperation programme on strengthening environmental management and land administration and environmentally sustainable development programmes.

Environment and climate change cooperation programmes will contribute to capacity building and raising the awareness of the public and staff at central ministerial and local levels. Pilot activities aim at mainstreaming climate change into land use planning and strategic environmental assessment, capacity building in the natural resources and environment sectors and contributing to develop government programmes and climate change adaptation and mitigation action plans.

Climate change has been identified as one of the Swedish government’s priorities, especially during the second half of 2009 when Sweden holds the EU presidency and at multilateral negotiations during the COP15 in Copenhagen.

The climate change challenge is global and requires measures from all countries. Sweden wants to be a leading international role model, with a high growth rate that is environmentally sound and based on sustainable resources.

This means being an environmentally-driven economy. Vietnam, as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, will benefit from cooperation with international research and development bodies, clear action plans, concrete measures to support communities vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Sweden, through its embassy in Hanoi and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, looks forward to fruitful and continued friendly relations with Vietnam and hope that we can deepen these relations in areas such as trade, investment and tourism. We have many global challenges to cope with and we believe that environment and climate change are areas where it is vital that countries cooperate.