The Permanent Representative Delegations to the United Nations (UN) ofVietnam, Sweden and some other countries together with the UNSustainable Development Solution Network (UNSDSN) hosted a seminar onthe post-2015 development agenda and a new climate change agreement inNew York.

In her opening speech, Ambassador Nguyen PhuongNga, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, stressed that 2015is an important year as the UN is working diligently to build apost-2015 development agenda while trying to reach an agreement onclimate change as a part of implementing the United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

She notedthat sustainable development will not be achieved if challenges ofclimate change are not managed successfully, and vice versa, sustainabledevelopment goals will provide a framework and driving force for aclimate change deal.

The ambassador took the occasionto brief the audience on Vietnam’s efforts in the related fields,including the designing and implementation of national strategies onclimate change and green growth.

She called on theinternational community to provide assistance to Vietnam, either in theforms of finance or technology and capacity-building.

At theseminar, participants agreed that climate change is one of the biggestchallenges to sustainable development and that countries should focus onreaching a global agreement on climate change during the 21 stConference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris late thisyear.

Participants also stressed the need to mobilise resourcesfor coping with climate change, including implementing a commitment tocontribute 100 billion USD to the Green Climate Fund.-VNA