At the “Vietnam Sustainable Development Business Forum 2022 (VCSF 2022) with the topic: Transformation, Acceleration, Breakthrough – Sustainable Enterprises, Prosperous Country” on December 1, Mr. Pham Tan Cong , Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( VCCI) said that according to the United Nations assessment, humanity faces three major challenges, namely: climate change; Scarcity of natural resources and loss of biodiversity.

TWO APPLICATION MODELS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Of these three challenges, the risk of climate change is the most urgent and serious, according to the Global Risk Assessment report released by the World Economic Forum in early 2022.

Every year an estimated 20 million people worldwide lose their homes and livelihoods to the effects of climate change. Vietnam’s 100 million people are among the world’s most vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, particularly along the low-lying coasts and coastal plains, the country’s vast rivers due to rising sea levels, storms and flooding.

In recent months, our country has been struggling with the aftermath of storms and floods in the northern and central mountainous areas, floods and floods in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, drought on the South Central Coast and in the Central Highlands, landslides, salt water incursions in the Mekong Delta…

Mr. Nguyen Tuan Quang, deputy director of the Department of Climate Change (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), citing data millions of people in areas along the coastal zones and river deltas in Vietnam are in the group of the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change .

According to calculations by the World Bank (WB), without suitable adaptation and mitigation measures, climate change is estimated to cost Vietnam about 12% to 14.5% of GDP annually until 2050 and plunge up to 1 million people into extreme poverty by 2030.

Over the past two decades, Vietnam has been one of the countries with the fastest increase in greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world. Therefore, the current urgent requirement is that Vietnam must build a zero-carbon economy and adapt to climate change, towards a green economy, circular economy and environmental friendliness to help achieve the goal. income country by 2045.

In order to proactively anticipate and respond to these trends, Mr. Pham Tan Cong said that the government has noted that Vietnam has prioritized the application of a sustainable development model based on the simultaneous creation of two roadmaps: building resilience and adapting to climate change mitigate climate change by decarbonizing growth.

Implementing the reduction of carbon emissions according to the relevant roadmap and aligning the economy towards progressively reducing carbon-intensive energy sources to net-zero emissions (net-zero) by 2050, as pledged by the Prime Minister at COP26 in 2021.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREEN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The head of the VCCI also emphasized that sustainable development has become an inevitable trend and that corporate strategies for sustainable development must be built on the pillars of economic, governance, social and environmental (EESG).

Innovation, creativity and digital transformation will help companies accelerate the process of building sustainable pillars. Pioneering companies that transform themselves and operate under the motto of responsible production and business towards the community, society and the environment are proving to be extremely adaptable and resilient and have sustained resilience to adverse external changes, as well as the ability to react flexibly and effectively the opportunities offered by the economy.

The values ​​of this sustainable corporate development must be designed and built on the basis of a central value system of entrepreneurs and companies. This is corporate ethics, corporate culture.

“Business ethics and corporate culture are of immediate importance for every entrepreneur and every company. In the context of global integration and competition, ethical requirements in production and economy, consumer protection, environmental protection, green economy, circular economy are promoted, both creating new standards and creating technical barriers in market penetration, especially in developed countries,” emphasized Mr. Pham Tan Cong .

Business ethics and culture create new internal capacities and competitiveness for companies and are an indispensable basis for the sustainable development of companies. Therefore, the President of the VCCI urged companies to choose sustainable development models and goals that pay special attention to building and applying business ethics standards and a progressive business culture.

Given that companies have many opportunities to build a carbon-neutral economy and adapt to climate change, Mr. Quang stressed, companies that know how to capitalize on climate change opportunities will get new models. have the opportunity to participate in the carbon market.

Enterprises can promote trade cooperation, invest in development, mobilize capital and technology from investment funds and financial institutions to develop enterprises in a green and sustainable direction, build green product and climate brands.

Currently, a number of bilateral and multilateral donors are approaching and have pledged to support Vietnam in encouraging companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing and operations.

In particular, the global commitments on financial resources for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change, and restoring losses and damage caused by climate change were achieved in principle at the COP27 conference, which is taking place in Egypt in November 2022 took place.

This will be a key source of support in terms of technology, finance and managerial capacity to help the business community make the green transition and help achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, while improving resilience and mitigating losses damage caused by climate change is minimised.