Vietnam Agriculture Sector Aims to Cut CO2 Emissions

It was important to come up with ways to mitigate CO2 emissions in agriculture, which produces approximately 43% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said at a recent seminar. Doanh announced that the ministry had already set up a working group in charge of pushing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to achieve this goal. The group was set up under the framework of a three-year project launched in March that organizes training courses for policymakers and experts on developing NAMA plans. The UN One Plan, a joint framework between the United Nations and the Vietnamese Government, will contribute $700,000 to the project, while the remainder will be provided by the Vietnamese government. A FAO representative stressed at the seminar that stronger co-ordination between sectors and strong will on the part of managers were critical for reducing GHG emissions. By 2020, the agriculture sector aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 5.7 million tons, approximately 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The seminar was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (Vietnamnews.vn Oct 9)