Special Report on Youth for Climate Action in Viet Nam 2022

Under the UNDP Global Climate Promise Initiative, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and UNDP Viet Nam co-organized the Youth National Writeshop 2022 in August 2022. The Writeshop took stock of youth activities, updated the Special Report and the Youth4Climate Roadmap, and formulated concrete actions for youth to contribute to the net-zero commitment. Afterwards, in October 2022, during a Youth Policy Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ha Noi, the Viet Nam Youth Statement on Climate Change 2022 was presented to the UN-Secretary General Antonio Guterres. In November 2022, UNDP Viet Nam, in collaboration with the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), released a special report entitled “Youth for Climate Action in Vietnam 2022”.

The report was co-written by twenty-four young authors from across the nation. It contained four key themes including youth in climate policy and decision-making processes, accelerating the transition towards a circular economy, climate mitigation towards net zero, and climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The authors documented and tracked more than 130 youth-led climate initiatives and projects that were outstanding good practices of meaningful climate action. They also identified several priority accelerators moving forward, including the establishment of a youth climate policy working group, education and capacity-building programmes on climate change, and financial and technical support for youth-led projects. They suggested local governments and stakeholders to engage youth in organizing communication and awareness raising campaigns on climate change, promotions of  green lifestyles and climate resilient action. Priority should be given to the establishment of a working group on youth and climate policy to represent youth voices at national and international policy forums, they added.

This Special Report on “Youth for Climate Action in Vietnam 2022” provides detailed information on the obstacles and challenges faced by Vietnamese youth, as well as the unique climate action roadmap of the young Vietnamese generation for the upcoming period. We hope that this special report will encourage youth participation in climate action. In addition, we want to call on all of our colleagues and development partners to join us in implementing our activities and projects by bolstering the youth’s creativity, motivation, and power, and by providing financial mechanisms to ensure that Vietnamese youth and future generations will be able to live in a decent world and become leaders in responding to climate change.

“Together, let’s embark on the Race to Zero”.