Thematic Group: Climate Change Mitigation

Under the Vietnam NGO Climate Change Working Group, the theme of mitigation is understood to cover all measures that can be taken proactively to reduce the net current or future emissions of greenhouse gases from Vietnam. This includes measures that result in tradable emission reductions for compliance and voluntary markets. It also includes measures that are not linked to markets but which measurably contribute to net emission reductions.

 

The CCWG believes that mitigation must be part of Vietnam’s strategy for addressing climate change for the following reasons:

  • To realise income generation opportunities from existing and potential markets in emission reductions
  • To gain advantage in the emerging ‘green’ technology sector
  • To build national capacity to meet future emission reduction commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

 

While as a developing country, Vietnam is not currently subjected to an emission reduction commitment under the UNFCCC and associated Kyoto Protocol, it is recognised that this situation will change at some point in the future (as agreed at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Bali in December 2007).

 

NGOs in Vietnam can contribute to the development of the national climate change mitigation strategy by helping government and private sector agencies, which are engaged in mitigation measures for political and economic reasons. This would increase the likelihood that the strategy would be sustainable in terms of social equity and biodiversity conservation.

 

The CCWG Mitigation Thematic Group will therefore look beyond ‘actively’ pro-poor measures and address broader mitigation issues, such as those with a conservation focus, that are not pro-poor by design but have inherent poverty reduction benefits.

 

Coordination with CCWG

The Mitigation Thematic Group will work with the other three CCWG thematic groups as follows:

  1. Advising the Policy Thematic Group on advocacy regarding mitigation issues as they pertain to government policy and strategy. The Mitigation Thematic Group will not engage directly with Vietnam government agencies in an advocacy role.
  2. Cooperating with the Adaptation Thematic Group to clarify the complementarity and distinctions between these two elements of Vietnam’s climate change strategy.
  3. Cooperating with the Awareness and Behavioural Change Thematic Group in the promotion of clean development and ‘climate smart’ organisations. This may include linking CSR-driven efforts to achieve carbon neutrality at the organisational level with poverty-focused carbon finance.

 

Objectives

  1. Sharing existing knowledge on climate change mitigation in Vietnam and elsewhere in the form of documents, experiences, networks or learning groups.
  2. Building knowledge and capacity of thematic group members in the field of climate change mitigation and passing this capacity on to the wider CCWG and to government and private sector partners. Identifying knowledge gaps and consequent opportunities for research, verification of emission reductions and incorporating climate change mitigation measures into existing and future projects and operations.
  3. Developing institutional frameworks to facilitate the development and verification of climate change mitigation measures under compliance and voluntary mechanisms. Identifying opportunities for adding value to measures with a pro-poor focus through emerging carbon market standards and optimising institutional and administrative procedures to promote the use of these standards.
  4. Engaging constructively with private sector stakeholders to link investment in carbon finance with Vietnamese NGOs, to promote the use of pro-poor standards in carbon markets and to encourage the private sector to advocate to policymakers for greater emphasis on mitigation measures in national climate change strategy.

 

Further reading

 

CCWG Mitigation Thematic Group Terms of Reference

CCWG Mitigation Thematic Group Action Plan

CCWG Mitigation Thematic Group Meeting Minutes 2008