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Ha Noi, Viet Nam. A four-day national training workshop on capacity development in carbon balance appraisal of projects and policies was held on 14-18 June by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Bank, with a wide range of Government and relevant stakeholder representatives.

Participants of the training workshop are decision makers and experts on Green Climate Fund and related issues from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), and other relevant Government agencies, staff from universities, research institutions, NGOs, service providers and consultants.

The event responds to Viet Nam’s strategic policy priorities regarding investments in climate change resilience, food security and green growth. Climate change poses a central threat to smallholder farmers in Viet Nam that struggle to sufficiently adapt in the face of increasingly frequent weather extremes and variability. The workshop is also important in respect to the Government of Viet Nam’s sustainable development strategy 2011 to 2020 that underlines socio-economic development must attach special importance to environmental protection and improvement, and active responses to climate change.

In the sustainable development strategy the Government of Viet Nam identifies the achievement of sustainable growth in the agriculture, forestry and land use sector that strengthens opportunities for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation as a central policy priority. Besides others, the Government’s commitment is reflected in the Programme of GHG Emissions Reduction in the Agriculture and Rural Development Sector up to 2020, and the Intended National Determinant Contribution (INDC) of Viet Nam. To this effect, FAO particularly supports Viet Nam and other countries to develop climate smart agricultural investment plans and to create an enabling policy environment that supports a transition towards sustainable agricultural growth and poverty reduction pathways.

While the focus of FAO is on food security and climate change adaptation benefits, it is at the same time important to consider environmental impacts in general and climate change mitigation in particular, as an integral element of agricultural planning processes. For this purpose the availability of scientific, consistent and cost-effective methods and processes for greenhouse gas assessments of agricultural investment projects is of key importance.

With other partners, FAO and the World Bank have supported Climate Smart Agriculture since 2010 in response to the growing need for a clear and coherent strategy for managing agriculture and food systems under climate change. The application of such approach needs to combine practices, policies and institutions as well as finances and appropriate tools to appraise performances of projects and actions in line with food security, climate resilience and climate mitigation.
In this context, the World Bank is funding a wide range of agriculture and rural development investment projects in Viet Nam to considerably contribute to achieving GHG mitigation benefits while underpinning a sectoral transformation towards efficient and profitable agricultural production systems.

The training workshop provided an opportunity for decision-makers and experts from Government and other stakeholders to familiarize themselves with the utilization of the FAO Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) to estimate and target climate change mitigation co-benefits from investments in agriculture, forestry and land use. The EX-ACT Tool is an appraisal system developed by FAO providing ex-ante estimates of the GHG impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, programmes and policies on GHG emissions and carbon sequestration. The tool allows to evaluate all sub-sectors of the agriculture, forestry and land use sector and also applies to the fishery sector and aquaculture. Utilized so far in more than 60 countries, investment projects totaling USD13 billion have been appraised for the GHG impacts. In addition, more than 2,600 experts have been trained in workshops and through e-learning since 2010.

The main objectives of the EX-ACT training workshop was to provide an overall knowledge of why to appraise the carbon balance of investment projects and policies and develop the capacity of experts from the Government of Viet Nam, key staff and consultants from World Bank-funded projects as well as other relevant stakeholders to estimate the GHG impacts of agriculture, forestry and land use projects and policies using the EX-ACT tool. Specifically, the workshop provides the opportunity to analyze the GHG impacts of five selected projects funded by the World Bank, covering sustainable agriculture transformation, irrigated agriculture improvement, water resources management, coastal resources development and integrated climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.

“This training workshop is very timely, given the Government’s strong commitment to invest in field-based interventions for climate change adaptation and mitigation in support of its sustainable development strategy” said Louis Bockel, FAO EX-ACT Team Leader. “This commitment is reflected in the high volume of investment of the five World Bank funded projects analyzed during the workshop amounting to around USD1.2 billion. It is expected that the training workshop will result in practical recommendations on next steps towards how to achieve and maximize climate change mitigation co-benefits in the identified projects and beyond” was added by Thomas Muenzel, FAO Senior Economist.

Contacts: Louis Bockel at [email protected];
Thomas Muenzel at [email protected]
Uwe Grewer at [email protected]

*This article first appeared in the FAO Viet Nam.