More innovative ideas needed to respond to climate change

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha hopes that AstraZeneca's forest planting and landscape restoration project will be a new creative idea in responding to climate change - Photo: VGP

At the reception, the Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated and thanked AstraZeneca for its valuable and timely support to Vietnam in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the efforts to repel the pandemic worldwide .

Thanking the Deputy Prime Minister for taking the time to meet him, Mr. Nitin Kapoor reported on a number of cooperation programs and projects being implemented in Vietnam to enhance patients' access to medicine, develop a sustainable health system, improve public health, and conduct clinical trials of drugs and biological products.

In addition, AstraZeneca is also actively working with Vietnamese agencies and partners to implement a forestation and landscape restoration project with an investment of 50 million USD, aiming to plant 22.5 million trees on 30,500 hectares, creating conditions for biodiversity development and supplementing sustainable livelihoods for more than 17,000 households.

"AstraZeneca is very aware of the close relationship between climate change, environmental pollution and human health," said Mr. Nitin Kapoor, and hopes that the forest planting and landscape restoration project in Vietnam will be a pilot project in the action plan of the National Steering Committee to implement Vietnam's commitments at COP26, thereby spreading and encouraging other organizations and businesses to act together for climate change response goals.

The group also aims to reduce carbon emissions across its global operations by 98% by 2026 compared to a 2015 baseline, and by 2030, halve the carbon footprint of its entire value chain.

Mr. Nitin Kapoor shared with the Deputy Prime Minister the awareness of the leaders of AstraZeneca Group on the close relationship between climate change, environmental pollution and human health - Photo: VGP

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha expressed his impression of the cooperation activities that AstraZeneca is implementing in Vietnam, especially in the field of vaccines and biological drugs, contributing to proactively preparing to prevent and combat epidemics that may occur in the future.

Supporting AstraZeneca’s commitment to reducing emissions and moving towards decarbonization in all of the group’s operations, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that experience in preventing and combating COVID-19 shows that the world can only repel and end the pandemic if all countries have equal access to vaccines. Similarly, the goals of responding to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions cannot be achieved if some countries are left out.

The Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that technology is the vaccine to respond to climate change. Developing countries like Vietnam need support and access to different solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Enterprises with strong scientific research forces such as AstraZeneca play an important role in climate change response goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions to "0" (Net Zero) or a just energy transition (JETP) when participating in research projects, transferring technology to produce new fuels (green hydrogen, green ammonia), building smart transmission systems or large-scale electricity and energy storage devices.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, leaders and representatives of ministries, sectors and Astra Zeneca Group at the reception - Photo: VGP

"Human health is closely related to environmental health. Therefore, restoring and protecting the natural environment... is an extremely important solution to prevent and reduce the burden of disease costs related to water, air and waste pollution for people and society," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Discussing the project of planting 22.5 million trees by Astra Zeneca, the Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Climate Change (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) to closely coordinate with AstraZeneca to implement the project to achieve the best results.

"One of the biggest challenges in responding to climate change is the lack of ideas as well as commitments to action and feasible solutions. Therefore, I hope the project will be a new creative idea in responding to climate change," said the Deputy Prime Minister, hoping that AstraZeneca will participate in projects in the roadmap to implement Net Zero and JETP in Vietnam as a pilot and test for the global mechanism.

At the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister also discussed recommendations from AstraZeneca Group regarding the harmonization of Vietnam's regulations with international standards and practices in the production, clinical trials, licensing of drugs and biological products, and management of forest carbon credits.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/can-them-nhieu-y-tuong-sang-tao-moi-trong-ung-pho-bien-doi-khi-hau-362011.html