Speaking at the meeting, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn highly appreciated the IPCC’s specialized climate change science achievements and stated that VNU had always been the pioneer in climate change research and training.

Besides, VNU has been an activist in organizing and participating in various activities related to climate change and has also been the pioneer in applying the IPCC’s achievements to its research and training.

Thus, VNU President Nguyễn Kim Sơn proposed the IPCC to maintain its supportive relationships with VNU for sharing experience and updating climate change research results as well as climate change impacts on Vietnam.

During the meeting, it was also decided that VNU would be the venue for the IPCC’s activities to raise community’s awareness of climate change through research and training; the IPCC would promote research achievements transfer, share experience in climate change research and training for the enhancing of their efficiency. For its part, VNU proposed Prof. Mai Trọng Nhuận to be Vietnam representative to the IPCC and   liaison officer for research programs to be reported to the IPCC; the IPCC would provide undergraduate and graduate scholarships for VNU and permit VNU’s scientists to join the IPCC global climate change adaptation programs, etc.

The IPCC Chairman Hoesung Lee said that the presence in Vietnam of representatives from all the major IPCC units showed the Panel’s strong determination to cooperate with Vietnam in dealing with climate change.

The IPCC is currently preparing its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on risks for developing countries, including Vietnam, and a special report on global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. The IPCC Chairman Hoesung Lee hoped that Vietnamese scientists in general and those from VNU in particular would take an active part in preparing the Panel’s coming reports and would, especially, help answer locality-bound questions as well as provide scientific information to be included in the reports.

The Chairman also said that the IPCC had made scholarship programs available for climate change graduates. He emphasized that the IPCC would share climate change response solutions and would provide technical and equipment support so that Vietnam could assess climate change impacts more precisely.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Võ Tuấn Nhân highly praised VNU for its efforts in pioneering training and research on environment and climate change response solutions as well as hoped for VNU proving its strengths through contributing to climate change adaptation policy planning.

Later the same day, the IPCC Chairman Hoesung Lee, IPCC and VNU experts and scientists as well as a large number of VNU students attended a public lecture with the theme: “Updating scientific background on climate change”.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.