The idea is to help Vietnam realise the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by2030.

In 2012, the first national strategy for environmental protection with a visiontowards 2030 was launched.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said thestrategy had created positive changes to environmental protectionawareness. The Government had stuck to the principle of not sacrificingthe environment to reach its economic development goals.

However, according to the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resourcesand Environment (IPONRE), environmental pollution would continue due toweak management of solid waste and pollution sources in industrial zones,river basins and traditional handicraft villages.

Environmental quality had continued to deteriorate, especially airand water quality in urban areas. Environmental incidents such as themass fish deaths in Ha Tinh in 2016, mercury contamination caused by afire at a lightbulb company in Hanoi last year, and contamination ofthe Da River that affected thousands of people in the capital in2019.

Response to these incidents had been passive, according to theenvironmental ministry.

Dr Nguyen Trung Thang from IPONRE said the implementation of the nationalstrategy for environmental protection had its shortcomings.

“Vietnam has been unable to control sources of pollution,” he told aconference last November to review the strategy.

According to the MONRE, increasingly severe climate change required newsolutions. The draft was presented for the first time at a conference lastNovember which reviewed the strategy's implementation.

The ministry is working on the draft and collecting feedback.

Nhan said the national strategy for environmentalprotection needed to consider the environment as the foundationfor socio-economic development, and focus on financial sources fromthe State budget and private sector.

The draft strategy includes stiffer fines for environmental violations.

One of the most important solutions proposed is to reform administrativeprocedures towards transparency in order to encourage private enterprises toinvest in environmental protection.

It also calls for improving air quality in cities, managing toxicand solid waste, preventing biodiversity deterioration,and responding to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions./.VNA

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