The Workshop on Fiscal Policies for Climate Change Mitigation was Held in Hanoi
The international workshop on Fiscal Policies for Climate Change Mitigation, co-organized by the AFDC, Vietnam Institute of Financial Training, and UNDP was held on Hanoi on November 23rd, 2010. It is one of a series of capacity building activities that AFDC and IFT jointly develops for the financial officials in Vietnam. About 90 participants from the governmental agencies of Vietnam, World Bank, UNDP, Indonesia, Japan and China attended the training. The acting director of IFT Mr.Do Duc Minh, the director of AFDC, Dr. Peng Runzhong, the chief representative of UNDP in Vietnam Ms. Setsuko Yamazaki delivered the opening speeches.
The chief economist of World Bank in China Ms. Deepak Mishra reviewed the Asian economies’ policies that address the climate changes. According to the World Bank research, Asia could be hit hard by the climate change, which will result in drought, floods, storm as well as the rise of sea level. The 10 top most affected countries by the climate change are all developing countries, with china affected noticeably by the flood, storm and rising seal level. The fiscal policies, which can promote carbon tax, support climate-friendly technologies, etc will have significant roles in mitigating the negative impacts of the climate change. In the area of regional cooperation, the World Bank advises to strengthen the coordination efforts in CFT trade policies, remove the barriers on environment-friendly products in order to promote the market; enhance the cooperation in market supervision as well as improve the sharing of climate monitoring information.
The experts from Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and China made the presentations on the fiscal policies that each country adopt to address the climate changes. Generally speaking, the policy instruments include build the environment fund, expand the fund scale by fiscal payment and involving private sector, supporting CFT projects, phase in carbon tax and carbon trade market; phase out the outdated equipment through taxation; impose fuel tax and encourage the use of small-displacement vehicles; facilitate the financing for CFT projects. In view of the important role those fiscal policies in countering the climate change, Thailand, Indonesia also specially introduced the MOF’s efforts in addressing the climate change problems. The Chinese experts discussed China’s policies in dealing with energy conservation and emission reduction, which drew huge attention and interests from other developing nations.
The workshop is very successful in a sense that it promotes the exchange of views and experiences of each economy in addressing climate change through fiscal policies.
