Climate change drives business restructuring, report shows

A ceremony launching a report “Adapting to succeed, assessing the impact of climate change on Vietnamese businesses” is held in Ha Noi on September 16, 2020.

The event was jointly organized by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Asia Foundation’s Viet Nam office. 

This is considered the largest-ever survey with the participation of 10,400 enterprises nationwide commenting on the risks of natural calamity and climate change on manufacturing and production. 

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the VCCI Vu Tien Loc said that Viet Nam is among the 10 nations suffering severe negative impacts of climate change. 

Climate change has left multi-faceted negative impacts on business performance, such as production interruption, reduction of labor capacity, revenue decrease, increase in production expenditures, damages on infrastructure and material input shortages.

Viet Nam has strictly observed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. 

Over the recent years, the Vietnamese Government has actively completed the legal system on environmental protection and given priority to launching programs responding to natural calamity and climate change. 

The report shows that almost all respondents said that climate change and its challenges have contributed to boosting the process of restructuring enterprises, including re-organization of manufacturing and creating new products and technologies. 

Some firms asserted that they are willing to spend 7.32% of their operation expenditures for more environmental-friendly targets, Loc said.

The Global Climate Risk Index, published by the German environmental think tank Germanwatch, ranked Viet Nam sixth among countries and territories hit hardest by extreme weather events between 1999 and 2018, with its Climate Risk Index (CRI) at 29.83.

The nation suffered 226 extreme events in 1999-2018 with a death toll of 285 and losses of more than US$2 billion per year.

By Thuy Dung