President receives U.S. special envoy for climate

The Vietnamese President hosted a reception for U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in San Francisco on November 16 as part of his tour to the U.S. to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week.

He praised efforts by the two countries in realizing the high-level agreements reached during the Viet Nam visit by President Joe Biden, making the bilateral partnership more substantial and stable.

The Vietnamese State leader highly valued the efforts by President Biden and the special envoy in raising the awareness and actions to deal with climate change, affirming that Viet Nam wants to foster collaboration with the U.S. in this field in a way.

Viet Nam, said the President, continued to implement overall and drastic measures to promote green growth and climate change mitigation, including the approval of the National Power Development Planning for the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050, which aims to switch from the use of fossil fuels to renewable and new energy towards the net-zero emission target by 2050.

He took the occasion to seek the U.S. support to create more favorable conditions for the implementation of projects to promote energy transition and optimize the renewable energy potential in Viet Nam, contributing to ensuring long-term energy security.

In reply, Mr. Kerry affirmed that the U.S. treasures the relations with Viet Nam and supports the Southeast Asian country in playing an active and practical role in the region.

The U.S. will continue to assist Viet Nam in enhancing its capacity in climate change adaptation, pollution control and sustainable management of resources and support Viet Nam in improving its management capacity in the field of environment, he added.

Kerry hailed Viet Nam’s prompt action in consulting international partners to finalize the Resource Mobilization Plan (RMP) for the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) in the next 3-5 years right after adopting the Political Declaration on establishing the JETP.

Kerry emphasized that the U.S. stands ready to conduct high-level cooperation with Viet Nam to ensure that the 28th UN Climate Conference (COP28) will produce positive results.

He affirmed that as a long-lasting friend of Viet Nam, he will continue to advocate support for resilience building for vulnerable communities in the Mekong Delta./.