Multi-level climate governance in Vietnam

Vietnamese Version

Vietnam is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts and faces new challenges as it continues its development journey. The rapid growth of the country’s economy, population and cities is resource intensive and is leading to increased energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. To respond to climate change risks and steer the country towards green growth, the Vietnamese central government has designed a comprehensive set of climate change policies.

Bridging national plans and sub-national climate action will be essential in sustaining the country’s development gains and accelerating its transition to a low-emission future. How can Vietnam’s climate policy framework enable transformative climate action? How can stronger vertical and horizontal coordination bridge policy and practice?

The authors of the report review Vietnam’s climate change policies and actions through a multi-level governance lens. They note the important progress Vietnam has made in setting up a national climate change governance architecture, translating national policies into sub-national climate plans and mobilising international and domestic finance to implement activities. Nonetheless, an implementation gap remains. While provinces have largely complied with the central government’s demand to draft local climate action and green growth strategies, implementation remains weak and important gaps remain with regards to aligning climate change and development planning and climate proofing public investments.

The study is part of a series of four country studies and one synthesis report that explores how multi-level climate governance enables local climate action in Kenya, Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam. The studies are based on the four-year project known as V-LED, or Vertical Integration and Learning for Low-Emission Development in Africa and Southeast Asia. From 2015 through 2018, V-LED aimed to stimulate local climate action by rallying ambition and connecting national institutions, local governing units, communities and businesses. Based on experience gained from this project and additional research, the study analyses climate governance in practice, highlighting encouraging practices and continuing challenges of effective multi-level climate governance.

Further reports of the same project

• Multi-level climate governance in Kenya
• Multi-level climate governance in the Philippines
• Multi-level climate governance in South Africa