Climate change is not “out there”

Drought, heat, floods and a series of extreme weather events have occurred continuously in many regions of the world and Vietnam in recent years. With its core business being plant varieties, the Central Seed Joint Stock Company (Vinaseed) is directly affected when climate change impacts are becoming more and more rapid, strong and widespread, and increasingly evident in the shift in crop structure.

At the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Ms. Tran Kim Lien, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Vinaseed, admitted that the Company had experienced a crisis in product strategy due to the lack of varieties for the summer-autumn rice crop. Vinaseed almost abandoned the summer-autumn crop with about 3.5 million hectares due to the lack of heat-resistant varieties. The main rice varieties were sick, had empty grains... when the temperature rose and the humidity was high.

In difficult times, Vinaseed always strives to find solutions. Vinaseed leaders have revealed a new product, expected to be recognized early this year, registered for circulation and expected to be commercialized from the summer-autumn crop of 2025.

Climate change not only directly affects business operations. Global efforts to deal with the climate and energy crisis also require changes from governments and businesses for a common goal. At the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26) in 2021, Vietnam committed to bringing net emissions to zero by 2050. Europe has the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the EU Deforestation Prevention Regulation (EUDR)...

Strict requirements are set towards the goal of environmental protection. At the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), one of the challenges for the textile and garment industry pointed out by Vinatex is also the new production requirements, from the challenges of the textile and garment industry in implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) mechanism, CBAM, to non-financial certificates from customer requirements, regulations on sustainable supply chain appraisal.

Change brings challenges and opportunities. Vietnam’s commitment to net zero emissions requires a lot of resources to pursue the goal, but there is an opportunity to receive support from international partners to implement specific projects in the 2024-2028 period to realize the Political Declaration Establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

Or with Vinaseed, the Project on Sustainable Development of 1 million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030 is also opening up new opportunities when the Project's target is 70% use of certified rice. Previously, copyright infringement had directly affected the business output of this enterprise.

ESG - inevitable trend

Not only stopping at identifying challenges and opportunities, the general meetings of shareholders of many businesses this year have included content on ESG - a set of 3 standards used to measure the level of sustainable development and the impact of businesses on the community.

Sustainable development is not only a trend, but also increasingly necessary in an unstable world environment.

- Ms. Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, Chairwoman of PNJ Board of Directors

At the General Meeting of Shareholders of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ), the Company's leaders revealed that PNJ has an ESG subcommittee in the Board of Directors. The budget to implement strategic ESG projects in 2024 is VND 10 billion.

PNJ's ESG strategy is integrated into the overall development strategy. All macro-management strategies, initiatives, production - business, and social activities of PNJ take ESG as a guideline.

“PNJ is building ESG activities to increase brand value. PNJ’s brand value has reached nearly 500 million USD, the future goal is to reach 1 billion USD,” said Ms. Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, Chairwoman of PNJ Board of Directors. Ms. Dung emphasized that sustainable development is not only a trend, but also increasingly necessary in an unstable world environment.

Similarly, at the annual meeting in mid-March 2024, EVNFinance's General Meeting of Shareholders also approved EVNFinance's development strategy towards integrating sustainable factors into business operations. The Board of Directors is assigned to develop a roadmap and policies related to integrating sustainable factors into EVNFinance's business operations; approve plans and resources for implementation at EVNFinance and monitor the implementation of sustainable factors into business operations.

Researching and building a sustainable development strategy according to ESG standards is also one of the goals that Petrolimex Insurance Corporation (PJICO) has set for the period 2024 - 2029. Not only is it an inevitable trend, according to PJICO leaders, moving towards ESG also supports the company in achieving its core goals of developing safe - sustainable - effective business, comprehensive digital transformation, and improving customer experience.