CHAPTER 8 Toward a Sustainable and R: 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 Viet 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. 307 table and Resilient Future. Introduction Based upon Vietnam's practical conditions, this chapter reviews the major contents on “Toward a Sustainable and Resilient Future" of the Special Report on “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” (SREX) by the InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2012).
The structure of this chapter is as follows: Starting with reviewing the relationship between Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development (Section 8.2), reviewing the interactions over time between the present and the future (Section 8.3), assessing natural resources, environmental and social aspects related to sustainable development (Section 8.4), as well as analyzing the relationship between disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and emission reduction.5), in order to establish grounds for response measures and plans towards future climate extremes (Section 8.6), and concluding by emphasizing the synergy between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, aiming at building a sustainable society (Section 8. discusses the relationship between disaster risk management and sustainable development, starting by clarifying the concepts (Section 8.1), reviewing the roles of ecosystems and biodiversity (Section 8.2), emphasizing the importance of awareness (Section 8.3), the role of technology (Section 8.4) and concluding by considering the challenges in decision-making (Section 8. By concentrating on the time factor, Section 8. considers the integration of short-term and long-term objectives through the evaluation of efficiency of present operations resulting in future benefits (Section 8.1), reviewing barriers in combining short-term and long-term goals (Section 8.2), and recommendation of connecting short-term and long-term actions (Section 8.4 assesses natural resources, environmental and social aspects towards sustainable development, by analyzing available capacities and resources as well as limitations (Section 8.1), considering those who benefit and are affected at all levels (Section 8.2), and the possibility of affecting human security aspects (Section 8.3), and referring to the implementation of relevant international goals (Section 8.5 concentrates on the relationship between disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction, in which the limitations of resilient capacity are considered (Section 8.1), and considers the synergy and conflict between mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk management in urban and rural areas (Section 8.6 identifies the tools and plans to promote resilience to climate extremes and combine the adaptation, disaster risk management, and other policy goals, of which scenarios are established (Section 8.1), then emphasizing short-term and long-term implementation plans using analysis tools and models to improve disaster risk management and adaptation (Section 8.2), and finally making recommendations on promoting change (Section 8.7), the chapter concludes by emphasizing the synchronous collaboration between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in order to build a sustainable society.
308 CHAPTER 8 Toward a Sustainable and R‹ D4 C5 8. Relationship between Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development 8. Concepts of Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Sustainable Development and How They are Related Sustainable Development is a concept that defines development in all aspects in the present while maintaining the ability to ensure continuous development of long-term future. In Vietnam, sustainable development has become the strategy, view and goal of development, and was manifested through the implementation of the "National Plan for Environment and Sustainable Development 1991-2000" (President of the Ministers'Council, 1991).
The viewpoints regarding ‘sustainable development was confirmed in Directive No. 36-CT/TW of June 25, 1998 of the Political Bureau on “Strengthening environmental protection during the period of industrialization and modernization of the country’, and was re-affirmed at the Sth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and on Strategy for Socio-Economic Development 2001-2010, of which “Rapid, effective, and sustainable development, economic growth accompanied by the implementation of social progress and equality, and environmental protection”. More specifically, the sustainable development progress in Vietnam has been clearly reflected in the Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development, in which “The overall objective of sustainable development is to achieve full material life, spiritual and cultural richness, equality among citizens, the consensus of society and the harmony between human and nature; development should promote a strong, reasonable and harmonious combination of three aspects: economic growth, social advancement and environmental protection" (Government of Viet Nam, 2004), Disaster risks are losses of human life, properties, environment, living conditions and socio- economic activities caused by natural disasters, pursuant to Article 3 of the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (the National Assembly, 2013), this concept is also discussed in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (IPCC, 2012 page 32). Disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction are defined in this chapter as the processes of designing, implementing, and evaluating the strategies, policies, and measures to enhance the understanding of disaster risk, disaster risk reduction, disaster risk insurance, continuous improvement in disaster prevention, response, and recovery practices, with explicit objectives of increasing human security, well- fare, quality of life, and sustainable development (IPCC, 2012 page 34).
Adaptation to climate change is reviewed exclusively in human and natural systems (IPCC, 2012 page 36), meanwhile the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE, 2008) also introduced the concept of climate change adaptation and mitigation, of which the adaptation aspect is defined for both natural and human systems, whereas climate change mitigation are activities to reduce the level or the intensity of greenhouse gases emission. The concepts of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are also systematically presented in Chapter 1, Section 1. Key concepts and definitions. These concepts and contents are manifested in major policies of Vietnam, in chronological order, starting with climate change mitigation, limiting the detrimental impacts of climate change, natural disasters prevention and control, and consitute one among nine priority areas in the Strategic Orientation for Sustainable Development of Vietnam (Government of Viet Nam, 2004).
Disaster prevention and control missions, which consist of prevention, response and recovery in order to mitigate losses caused by disasters, ensure sustainable development are expressively stated in the 309 CHAPTER 8 Toward a Sustainable and R‹ D4 C5 gas emissions. The Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment has developed a PhD. programme on “Climate change and Sustainable Development” since 2014. Many social organizations, international and national non-Governmental organizations have organized programmes and projects on raising awareness for local people in climate change adaptation and disaster risk management such as the “Capacity building on climate change for civil society organizations" project (SRD, 2011).
The Government has developed and implemented the “Community awareness raising and community-based disaster risk management” project (Government of Viet Nam, 2009) with the objective to raise community awareness and effectively organize the model of community-based disaster risk management; to minimize fatalities and property loss and contribute to ensure sustainable development. Many documents have been developed to promote awareness raising and education on climate change. The documents, research results, projects on climate change and the impacts of climate change in Vietnam, technical guidelines serving national, sectoral and local response activities against climate change, such as the Reporter Handbook (Nguyen Duc Ngu and Nguyen Trong Hieu, 2009), basic knowledge of climate change for the community (Truong Quang Hoc and Nguyen Duc Ngu, 2009), training-of-trainer materials on Climate Change (Truong Quang Hoc, 2011; Nguyen Duc Ngu and Truong Quang Hoc, 2009), basic knowledge on climate change (IMHEN and UNDP, 2012). Technology Choices, Availability, and Access Science and technology play significant roles in disaster prevention and climate change adaptationand are clearly manifested in the legislation and policy systems of Vietnam, Science and technology are specified in the Strategy for Science and Technology Development 2011- 2020 (Government of Viet Nam, 2012b), science and technology to prevent and mitigate disasters are defined in the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (National Assembly, 2013) and on the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (Government of Viet Nam, 2007).
Certain demands on science and technology in monitoring climate and adapting to climate change have been identified in the National Strategy on Climate Change (Government of Viet Nam, 2011a). Changing towards environment-friendly technologies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are identified in the National Strategy for Green Growth (Government of Viet Nam, 2012d). Researching new science and technology not only helps reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also provides timely, proactive response to climate change processes, reducing negative impact on socio-economic life, and taking advantage of the favorable opportunities for developming new economic sectors stemming from the environment (National Agency for Science and Technology Information, 2008). The traditional methods to respond to natural disasters and adapt to climate change such as building dykes, canals, flood regulating and diverging works, etc.
actively exploited (Tran Thuc and Le Nguyen Tuong, 2010); conservative technology of crop varieties and indigenous animal breeds, hybrid of crop varieties and animal breeds which have high productivity, high resistant to drought and salinization etc. are also being researched and deployed. Many modern technologies have been successfully applied in climate forecast, constructing climate change scenarios and sea level rise such as detailed statistical method, AGCM/MRI model, PRECIS model and SDSM, SIMCLIM softwares (MoNRE, 2011). This is an important part in the work of natural disasters prevention and climate change adaptation.
The recent climate change adaptation strategies will change the concept of adaptation from passive response to proactive prevention, considering the potential impact of climate change as 313 Toward a Sustainable and Resilient Future HAPTER an important guide for policymakers (Tran Thuc and Le Nguyen Tuong, 2010).
