IUC Asia and UN Habitat organised a roadshow to the three Vietnamese cities of Can Tho, Da Nang and Tam Ky on 10-14 February 2020 with the objectives of (1) discussing the project’s expected results and tentative workplan; (2) discussing with city leaders the possibilities of creating a Climate Action Plan core group/planning team who will consistently engage with UN-Habitat and thus assure their availability; and (3) plan cooperation on data collection.

The delegates visited Can Tho on 11 February 2020 and had an audience with Đào Anh Dũng, the Vice Chairman of the municipal’s People’s Committee. The Vice Chairman stated that the city will build urban authorities and an action plan against climate change. Therefore, the city needs support from IUC Asia and UN Habitat to make it happen. When signing commitments to join the GCoM in February 2019, the Cần Thơ authorities were committed to rolling out policies and measures to ease GHG, preparing for impacts of climate change, strengthening access to sustainable energy and monitoring the realisation of these objectives.

On 12 February 2020, the delegates conducted a meeting with the Vice Chairman of the Da Nang’s People’s Committee, Dang Viet Dung in Da Nang city. The purpose of the mission to Da Nang was to propose Da Nang City to join the Global Mayor Convention on Climate and Energy (GCoM) and to become one of the pilot cities that will receive support from IUC Asia’s technical partner, UN-Habitat, to develop the city’s climate action plan. The Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung welcomed the invitation and said that the goals and contents of GcoM are very suitable to integrate into the city’s general plan which is under development at the moment.

The visit to Tam Ky was held on 13 February 2020. The delegates had an audience with senior-level staff of the Tam Ky municipality office. The delegates introduced the host to GCoM initiative and invited the city to join the commitment to obtain the benefits including getting the support to develop a climate action plan compliant to the GCoM standard.

This effort is part of the IUC Asia support to Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) Southeast Asia under the component 2 of the IUC programme. IUC Asia, with technical support from UN-Habitat, will assist the three cities to develop their climate action plan in compliance with the GCoM’s global reporting framework.