APEC Climate Conference 2025: Promoting regional cooperation to respond to climate change

The main objective of the Conference is to clarify the specific climate challenges facing the APEC region, including their economic , social and environmental impacts; and to promote cooperation initiatives and share effective adaptation solutions.

The Presidium pressed the button to open the Conference.

The Vietnamese delegation attending the APEC 2025 Climate Conference included officials from the Department of Social Sciences , Humanities and Natural Sciences and Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Duc Thanh (Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology). The Vietnamese delegation presented a paper on "The necessity of developing a high-resolution climate dataset: A typical case in Vietnam" and participated in a discussion on the topic "Shaping the APEC cooperation roadmap on climate change adaptation: Regional integration and cooperation".

The conference focused on five main objectives, including: Discussing and clarifying the specific climate challenges facing the APEC region, including their economic, social and environmental impacts; Analyzing the complexity of climate change adaptation, especially for developing economies and vulnerable communities; Sharing experiences, knowledge and technology among APEC economies on climate change adaptation and mitigation; Identifying practical solutions and future directions, including policy cooperation, green finance and innovation to enhance climate response capacity across the region; Promoting regional and international cooperation within the APEC framework towards sustainable and equitable climate development.

Panorama of delegates attending the opening session of the Conference.

The discussion contents are divided into two main topics: (i) Climate drivers analysis - including: the need to assess climate model errors; the importance of the Pacific region in global climate change; methods of analyzing extreme weather phenomena such as heavy rain, storms, high temperatures; (ii) Climate adaptation and finance - focusing on integrating climate risks into development policy and lessons from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on financing climate change response.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Duc Thanh introduces the poster of the Vietnamese Delegation at the Conference.

At the Conference, the Vietnamese delegation shared some outstanding steps in implementing climate commitments, including: Updating the 2020 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), continuing to update in 2022; announcing Vietnam's third National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in line with the roadmap to achieve the goal of net zero emissions; including the responsibility for implementing the NDC in the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, Government Decrees and other legal documents for all people to implement. In particular, the Minister of Science and Technology issued Decision No. 2779/QD-BKHCN dated October 29, 2024 approving the National Science and Technology Program for the period up to 2030 "Scientific and technological research to serve the goal of achieving net zero emissions in Vietnam", code KC.16/2024-2030 in line with Vietnam's commitment to climate change adaptation.

Climate Causes Analysis Session of the Conference.

The APEC 2025 Climate Summit takes place in the context of increasingly complex and unpredictable global climate change, with increasingly serious impacts on a global scale, affecting the sustainable development of countries and people's livelihoods, requiring countries to take urgent and strong actions and strengthen international cooperation and coordinated actions to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

The representative of the Vietnamese delegation said that the Ministry of Science and Technology is ready to facilitate and proactively coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to implement the current action programs of the Government and relevant ministries and branches in the field of climate change in order to integrate into multilateral international relations and enhance the position of Vietnamese science in the international arena.

Vietnam’s specific contributions at the plenary and technical sessions were acknowledged and highly appreciated by the Executive Board and the participating delegates. In addition, they also provided a lot of useful information and experience, associated with the research function of the Department of Social Sciences, Humanities and Natural Sciences; thereby, creating a premise for the development of scientific policy proposals to serve climate change adaptation in the coming period./.