Green Innovation and Development Centre
An inception workshop held on 25th March 2021, Hanoi Club Hotel, Hanoi
On 25th March, WWF-Vietnam, Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID), WWF-VN and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) together held the inception workshop for the project “Multi Actor Partnerships (MAPs) for Implementing NDCs with 100% Renewable Energy (RE) for All”. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held as a hybrid event with the participation of virtual representatives from Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance (VSEA) in the Central of Vietnam, Bread for The World Germany, and WWF-Germany and other interested participants engaged in face-to-face interaction with physically present key stakeholders and aimed to officially launch the project. The workshop was attended by more than 70 representatives from the private sector, development partners, Government Ministries, multilateral development banks, science organizations, civil society organizations, academia, media, and experts on renewable energy.
The workshop began with an introduction and statements from Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, the Chairman of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD) and Mrs. Pham Cam Nhung, Lead for Climate and Energy Program, WWF Vietnam, about the threat of climate change in Vietnam, the country’s needs for energy development, the purpose and outcomes of the project, and how the MAP project aims to achieve the ambitious target of 100% RE. Their remarks highlighted how Vietnam has the highest greenhouse gas emission in the Mekong area but the country also has incredible RE potential and the energy shift needs to happen as soon as possible.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, the Chairman of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD)
Mrs. Pham Cam Nhung, Lead for Climate and Energy Program, WWF Vietnam
After the introduction, Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) presented the current roadmap of Vietnam to achieve NDC and how to get there. Mr. Tan has pointed out how renewable energy is a global trend around the world and it is happening at a much faster speed than earlier predictions. There are 49 countries, 14 states in the US, and 300 cities around the world that have included using renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emission into their laws aiming for 100% renewable energy by 2050. He strongly emphasized that: “The journey to achieve 100% renewable energy is not a simple focus on technology. It will be a transition of almost every sector in the society.”
Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE)
Followed by that is the presentation from Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung, MAP Project Manager from WWF-Vietnam. His detailed presentation elaborated the structure of the platform:
The stakeholders then get the chance to observe the MAP’s project flow and cordially invited to put down their names into phases of the project where they wanted to participate with the project.
During the workshop, participants from different agencies were actively engaging into the discussion and many suggestions were made. For example, the role of media in raising awareness is very important to the cause, but the knowledge must be disseminated beyond citizens, it needs to help changing the perspective of policy makers. Also, MAP needs to develop tools and roadmaps to monitor the transition process in Vietnam so stakeholders can have a better understanding of what they have achieved, what to aim for and what to do to get closer to the goal. Another important suggestion was about the possible role of citizens and communities to be included into MAP, as they are the direct targets of the project. Many participants agreed that building a shared vision and different energy scenarios, as well as to bring Vietnam to have 100% RE will be the most challenging task.
In the second session, participants were divided into three groups to discuss about their on-going projects, and what they can contribute to the MAP project and to what extent can MAP offer them in return for their efforts. This activity was filled with lively discussions from different organizations and many groups demonstrated their enthusiasm and eagerness to be more involved and active in the project.
Mrs. Nguy Thi Khanh, Executive Director of GreenID, expressed passionately her belief in this large-scale project: “The MAP platform can help Vietnam achieve incredible things at the national level. There is strength in numbers, and together with our diverse members of different expertise, we will be able to tackle great challenges present to Vietnam in this energy transition process.” The participants showed optimistic supports for the MAP project with the understanding that there will be political, economic, technological obstacles to overcome.
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