Hanoi, 17 October 2023. At their annual gathering, the implementers of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) pledged their strong support to the implementation of Vietnam’s net zero emission, climate change adaptation and biodiversity targets. Representatives of Vietnamese and German ministries exchanged perspectives on how the IKI can best support and accelerate the implementation of these commitments. The annual IKI Interface Viet Nam Workshop 2023, under theme “From Commitments to Actions” was organised by the IKI Interface project on 17 October in Hanoi.
The workshop aimed at strengthening the exchange between the political partners, commissioners, and implementers of IKI projects in Viet Nam. The workshop welcomed the delegation of the German commissioners, the German Embassy in Hanoi, representatives from MPI and MONRE and different Vietnamese line ministries and more than one hundred participants from across 38 IKI projects active in Viet Nam.
Delivering the opening remarks for the workshop’s afternoon session, Dr. Le Viet Anh, Director General of the Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Planning and Investment, noted: “I hope we will have not only positive sharing and discussions that contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of IKI projects in Viet Nam, but also help shape the policy priorities and actual practices that need to be supported by IKI in the coming time, towards realising Viet Nam’s commitments through IKI projects as in the name and spirit of the workshop, “From Commitments to Actions”.
Sharing the overview of new IKI Strategy until 2030, Dr. Philipp Behrens, Head of the International Climate Initiative stated: “IKI will combine the joint expertise within the German IKI ministries and aim at mobilising private climate investment.”
The IKI portfolio in Viet Nam currently comprises 38 bilateral, regional, and global projects under the four funding areas: Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions; Adaptation to the impacts of climate change; and Preserving and restoring natural carbon sinks; and Conserving biological diversity. In the morning session, participants were gathered in five working groups such as energy transition, the carbon market, biodiversity, climate adaptation, and climate finance in order to foster knowledge exchange among the projects. Updates on each thematic topic including its barriers, opportunities, and solutions were insightfully shared during the group work to provide a comprehensive picture to the participants.
(*) The documentation of the IKI Workshop 2023 is available at: IKI Workshop 2023 – Documentation
In the plenum, the IKI Gender Strategy was discussed and best practices on gender- responsive and transformative approaches were exchanged.
The afternoon session was fulfilled by the presentation on new IKI projects in Viet Nam and the thematic inputs by German and Vietnamese ministries. Turning to the expectations for the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 28 taken place in November and December 2023, the political partners from Viet Nam and Germany shared their perspectives on the synthesis report of the global stocktake and expectations for COP28.
The year 2023 marks the 15th birthday of the IKI, which has over 950 projects for climate change mitigation and biodiversity, activities in over 150 developing and emerging countries and a budgetary capacity of almost 6 billion euros.
“IKI is currently funding a volume of more than 500 million EUR (including activities outside of Viet Nam in the framework of the regional projects). Let me underline that Germany stands shoulder to shoulder with Viet Nam in our commitment to combat climate change and to protect biodiversity,” said Fabian Hartjes, Secretary Economic Affairs and Climate Diplomacy, German Embassy in Viet Nam, at his opening remarks.
