Vo Thanh Son
Executive Summary
Based on the results achieved in Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Chapter 8 is considered to be an orientation toward a sustainable development future which is resistant to the effects of climate change extremes in Vietnam.
With this purpose, this chapter presents the research on “Relationship between Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development”, “Integration of Short- and Long-term Responses
to Extreme Events”, and “Relationship between Disaster Risk Management, Adaptation to Climate Extremes, and Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. These issues are the theoretical and practical basis to help policy makers in Vietnam define a more specific vision for future development.
Remarks drawn from these studies are:
Conservation of natural capitals such as biodiversity and ecosystem services, applied science and technology play an important role in directing and harmonizing the nation’s socio-economic development goals;
Integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is an important issue in adjusting socio-economic policies and developing sectoral strategies, including connecting short and long-term activities through a synchronous implementation process, in order to bring about the highest efficiency for the present and future;
Enabling economic and social development as well as maintaining environmental security are essential to the implementation of sustainable development goals while Viet Nam is facing challenges of water shortage, degradation of land resources and biodiversity;
In Việt Nam, the impact of disaster risk and climate change are considered to be at the tolerant threshold, particularly concerning the vulnerability of affected populations, such as the poor, women, children and ethnic minorities as well as the most heavily affected industries such as agriculture and aquaculture, transportation and infrastructure; and
The role and awareness of leaders at all levels, as well as the adoption of appropriate approaches, such as adaptive management, will contribute to promote social change in order to adapt more effectively to climate change and and disaster risk reduction. Based on the aforementioned findings, Chapter 8 provides directions for “Planning for Proactive, Long-term Resilience to Future Climate Extremes” and “Synergy between Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation for a Resilient and Sustainable Future”. From the practical disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in Vietnam, three lessons were summarized, namely: 1) Strong commitment of the Government towards disaster risk reduction and climate extremes in order to proactively adapt to climate change; 2) Awareness raising, capacity development associated with the mobilization of community participation in disaster risk reduction, extreme events and climate change adaptation; and 3) Coordinating and promoting national capacity and international cooperation.