On 25-26 January, the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021 hosted by the Netherlands took place online. More than 30 world leaders, 50 ministers, and 50 international organisations gathered together with scientists and representatives from the private sector, civil society, and youth associations.

In his message to the world leaders, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xan Phuc indicated that Vietnam´s financial needs for climate change adaptation would amount to approximately 35 billion USD over the next ten years. He said that despite great domestic efforts in this field, Vietnam would only be able to cover up to 30% of these estimated costs for climate adaptation by own resources. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic added burden on state budget and threatened to jeopardize “[…] efforts that were supposed to tackle environmental challenges”, the Prime Minister added. Against this backdrop, he indicated Vietnam´s urgent need to receive further international support for climate change response, at the same time expressing his great gratitude for development partners` engagement so far. Furthermore, “climate mitigation and adaptation must also be integrated into the national strategic planning system” the Prime Minister pointed out.