07/07/2016
Việt Nam is in the process of promoting industrialization, modernization and urbanization. Industrial production – main pillar of the economy has been and will continue to grow. Together with the development of industrial production is the expansion and forming of new urban areas. Industrial production development and urban development are parallel processes, having organic relationships and following development rules. These two processes result in the increase in consumption: production consumption and individual consumption. Currently, the increase in consumption is leading to the increase in environmental pollution level. All Vietnam’s State of Environment reports warn about the increase in environmental pollution, particularly in new urban areas; main causes are manufacturing development and consumption increase in manufacturing and domestic activities in urban areas accompanied with the increase of waste types (solid, liquid, air…).
Unsustainable consumption and production tends to become a substantial barrier to the international economic integration of the country. The international economic integration has technical barriers that countries accessing the international integration have to follow. Coping with unsustainable consumption, a specific action programme needs to be proposed. On 11/1/2016, the Prime Minister has approved the National action plan on sustainable production and consumption to 2020, vision to 2030 (Program).
1. Contents of the program
The program is developed based on the viewpoint of rapid and effective economic development; contributing to environmental protection, poverty reduction and economy restructuring. Sustainable production and consumption activities are carried out comprehensively and focus on breakthrough actions, at the same time are integrated into existing programs; implement sustainable production and consumption towards approaching the product lifecycle, promoting the linkage in different phases of the product’s life cycle; apply and renew technologies, improve facility and management process for more efficient resource use, minimise waste and environmental pollution; change behaviour of consumers during the consumption, use and disposal of products; implement sustainable production and consumption based on the mobilization of the participation and contribution of all members in the society, of which enterprises and consumers play central roles.
The overall objective of the Program is to gradually change the production and consumption model towards better resource and energy use efficiency; enhance the use of environmentally friendly materials and products and renewable energy; reduce, reuse and recycle wastes; maintain the sustainability of ecosystems in all phases of the product’s lifecycle from exploitation, material supply to manufacturing, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal.
Accordingly, during 2016 - 2020, mechanisms and policies on sustainable production and consumption will be finalized. The proportion of enterprises in different sectors that use intensive energy and have high risk of environmental pollution, developing and implementing the roadmap to apply new technologies towards clean technologies is up to 60% - 70%; the proportion of industrial processing entities applying cleaner production and energy saving solutions is up to 50%. At the same time, wastes in distribution activities should mitigate. About 50% of enterprises in the distribution field is aware of, is guided and applies solutions on cleaner production and energy saving; about 65% uses biodegradable packaging at supermarkets, trade centers and up to 50% in residential markets. In addition, consumers and communities are adequately provided with information on environmentally friendly products, sustainable production and consumption activities.
During 2021 - 2030, to comprehensively implement activities to promote sustainable production and consumption; models and practices on sustainable production and consumption are disseminated and applied widespread in communities and enterprises. To fundamentally change the current production and consumption models towards sustainability.
 |
|
Greening the distribution system and developing the supply chain of environmental friendly products and services is one of the key tasks of the Program |
2. Some major tasks
Develop, finalize the legal framework and policies on sustainable production and consumption: Integrate sustainable production and consumption into national, sectoral and local strategies, planning, development plan, sustainable development programs, socio-economic development, environmental protection and poverty reduction plans; develop and finalise the policies incentivising investments on production, trading and distribution of environmentally friendly products and services; finalise policies to promote green public procurement activities; promulgate the list of environmentally friendly products and services prioritized for public procurement; develop international trade policies, policies on export tax, import tax for environmentally friendly products and services to be appropriate with the international integration roadmap, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements; develop and finalize the legal framework to promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling activities.
Promote production and economic structure transition towards sustainability: Sustainably exploit, use natural resources; promote the replacement of non-renewable natural resources by new and renewable natural resources and energy; continue to implement cleaner production, energy saving and efficiency; study and apply clean production and environmentally friendly technology; change technologies and eliminate awkward, energy-intensive, environmental pollution technologies; develop human resources meeting the requirements for implementing sustainable production activities; apply the method of product’s lifecycle method in implementing ecological renewal activities in enterprises, industrial zones, industrial units to improve the efficiency in natural resources use, prevention and mitigation of wastes; develop the production of environmentally friendly products and services; continue to promote the development of environmental industries.
Greening the distribution system and developing the environmentally friendly product and service supply chain: Apply cleaner production and energy saving and efficiency in the distribution of products and services; reduce the use of non-degradable packaging in supermarkets, trade centres, local markets; promote the use of environmentally friendly packaging instead of non-degradable packaging; study, support the pilot, disseminate and upscale some distribution models of environmentally friendly products and services; promote the sustainable connection among material suppliers - manufacturers - distributors - consumers in production, distribution and use of environmentally friendly products and services; propagate, enhance awareness on sustainable production and consumption for stakeholders involving in the distribution system and the supply chain of products.
Enhance the ability of market access and promotion of export of key export products of Việt Nam towards sustainability: assess the market potentials and ability to provide environmentally friendly products by export enterprises of Việt Nam; study opportunities for export, participate in global supply chain with key export products of Vietnam which are labelled Việt Nam green label, energy saving label and other ecological label; support trade promotion, market access to products labelled Việt Nam green label, energy saving label and other ecological labels; enhance competitive capacity of key export products; enhance the market access capability and ability to meet regulations on environment and sustainable development of key export products of Việt Nam; guide and provide technical support to enterprises in developing the application and certification of international standard system and standards of exporters on environment and sustainable development; develop the sustainable export enterprise model;
Change behaviour in consumption and implement the sustainable lifestyle: Propagate and promote to develop the environmentally friendly lifestyle, sustainable consumption, form environmental protection awareness, towards developing a society of low waste, low carbon, environmentally friendly status and harmony; have information channels and propagate environmentally friendly products and services to consumers; enhance trainings and disseminate knowledge, policies and legislations on sustainable production and consumption to staff, enterprises and labourers to enhance human resources for the implementation of sustainable production and consumption practices; enhance the support roles of social organisations to protect the rights of consumers in propaganda, dissemination, education on legislations and knowledge on sustainable production and consumption to consumers; continue to implement Việt Nam green label, energy saving label and other ecological labels; promote the assessment and certification of environmentally friendly products and services; conduct green procurement activities, prioritise to promote green public procurement activities; study to pilot and upscale the green public procurement models; develop and disseminate models on sustainable lifestyle practices.
Implement waste reduction, recycling and reuse: Organise activities on propaganda and awareness raising on waste recycling and reuse for communities and enterprises; conduct solid waste integrated management following the market mechanism, fee collection based on solid waste volumes; guide, provide technical support to solid waste reduction, recycling and reuse activities in domestic activities, production and trade, services; enhance the control of refuse imports; pilot and upscale models of waste reduction, recycling and reuse in communities.
MSc. Lê Minh Ánh
Vietnam Environment Administration
