On April 16, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Le Cong Thanh held a working session with Professor Francesco Corvaro, Italian Climate Change Envoy, along with the delegation from the Italian Embassy on the sideline of the P4G Summit.
Welcoming the Italian delegation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE), Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh highly appreciated the support from the Italian Government and its agencies over the years across various areas, including meteorology and hydrology, water resources, remote sensing, and climate change.
Vietnam is currently accelerating the implementation of the Green Energy Development Strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. According to Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, Italy has extensive experience in product life-cycle assessment and smart city planning. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment looks forward to continued cooperation and knowledge sharing from Italy to enhance capacity related to climate and environmental issues.
Strengthening comprehensive cooperation
At the working session, Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh made proposals to strengthen cooperation with the Italian side in these fields:
First, experience and knowledge sharing. The Vietnamese side expects Italy to continue sharing its experience, models, technology transfer, and policy support to help strengthen the country’s capacity in climate impact assessment and resilience. Vietnam also seeks Italy’s expertise in promoting circular economy solutions, reducing plastic waste, and protecting the environment in urban areas, coastal regions, and the Mekong Delta.
In terms of research, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment hopes to foster connections between Italian research institutes, universities, and businesses and their Vietnamese counterparts to jointly develop and implement projects in areas where Italy has strengths and that align with Vietnam’s development priorities, such as urban adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
According to Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, Professor Corvaro has conducted a study on the digitalization of disaster-prone areas affected by earthquakes in Central Italy, which enables real-time monitoring and early warning. Vietnam considers this approach highly suitable for application in flash flood- and landslide-prone mountainous regions of the country.
Regarding finance, Vietnam seeks connections with financial institutions and credit organizations capable of providing economic and credit support, as well as technical assistance, technology transfer, and capacity building, including in management capacity, to help the country fulfill its commitments and global initiatives on emission reduction and climate change adaptation, especially its pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Deputy Minister also expressed his hope to continue implementing ongoing cooperation projects in meteorology, hydrology, and remote sensing per the established roadmaps.
Italy’s unwavering commitment
Acknowledging the remarks of Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, the Italian Envoy commended the strong cooperation between Vietnam and Italy in recent years, particularly in the environment and climate. In this regard, Italy committed to supporting Vietnam in preparations for the upcoming COP30 conference.
Professor Francesco Corvaro also praised Vietnam’s ambitious goals outlined in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), highlighting Vietnam’s strong commitment to combating climate change. From Italy’s perspective, Professor Corvaro is continuing discussions with the Italian Development Cooperation Agency to gain a deeper understanding of Vietnam’s objectives and, in turn, support Vietnam in implementing and updating its NDC.
At the same time, Italy is also interested in projects related to the circular economy and Vietnam’s approach in this field, including the successful pilot project of “One million hectares of low-emission, high-quality rice” in the Mekong Delta.
Professor Francesco Corvaro stated that Italy is willing to share its expertise and support Vietnam in implementing circular economy initiatives. He emphasized that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni values cooperation with Vietnam and looks forward to maintaining an open dialogue between the two sides.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Italian delegation reaffirmed that, through its participation at the P4G Summit in Hanoi, Italy is committed to supporting and closely collaborating with Vietnam to achieve the climate goals it has set.
Minh Hanh
