New York (VNA) – Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha has called on all countries to exert highest efforts and ambitio✱ns to implement thওeir submitted intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

In his speech at the Paris Agreement signing ceremony in New York on April 22, Minister Ha also proposed that the established financial, technology and capacity building mechanisms must be fully operationalised to provide sufficient instruments for responding to climate change. “Thirdly, developed countries must demonstrate their leadership by not only fulfilling commitments in their INDCs but also mobilising and providing financial resources for technology development and transfer and capacity building for developing countries to implement their INDCs and non-regret projects, in both adaptation and mitigation,” the minister said. He stressed that responding to climate change is an urgent task for the Vietnamese Government and people, noting that Vietnam is one of the developing countries most vulnerable to climate change and its impacts . “By signing the Paris Agreement today, Vietnam reaffirms its commitments to combat climate change”, Minister Ha said , adding that ratification of the Paris climate deal is on the Vietnamese Government’s agenda this year and the country will spare no effort to achieve its INDC goals. At the event, 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement, 15 of which immediately ratified it. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was a historic moment when a record number of countries signed the accord within a single day. The next step is to make sure that the Paris agreement will come into force as soon as possible, he noted. The Paris Agreement is an international agreement within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to deal with greenhouse gases emissions in terms of mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in 2020. The deal will take effect when 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases have ratified it. The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions are post-2020 climate actions that countries involved intend to take under the agreement.-VNA