Businesses Play Key Role in Using Resources Efficiently

This is one of the content mentioned in the 15th Forum on Eco Innovation and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Eco Innovation organised by the European Commission for Environment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

 

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that the world’s dwindled resources, relentless population growth and the negative impact of global warming will increasingly exacerbate the current market conditions from both the demand side and the production side.

 

According to calculations, the demand for consumption in food production and land use needs to add by 70 percent and demand for ecosystem use needs to increase by 60 percent to be enough for the later growth. According to the statistics, human has wasted 1.3 billion tonnes of food and gas. Losses and waste of food are the syndrome of using inefficiently in production, processing, marketing and consumption of food.

 

Especially Asia, which accounts for more than half the world's population but the land area accounts for only less than 50 percent, has the growth rate of 4.5 percent higher than that of the world. The rapid increase in demand for resources has caused Asian countries to suffer more natural hazards than other countries in the world.

 

To address the problems above, Mr Arab Hollabah, Head of Consumer and Sustainable Production of UNEP said that saving and using resources in an efficient manner is a global matter. In Europe and Asia, the links between the countries to achieve a common goal is very important.

 

Sharing the same view, Mr Pham Hoang Mai, Head of Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment (DSENRE ) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that Vietnam is one of the most affected by climate change. If sea levels increase by 1 metre, one third area of the largest granary in the Mekong delta will be flooded, greatly affecting the food supply as well as Vietnam's rice exports. So, Vietnam is the first country in Asia which is interested in issues of sustainable development and effective use of resources. Currently, Vietnam also has some projects to promote the efficient use of resources. "Vietnam is very interested and willing to cooperate with international partners towards a goal of world harmony with the goal of building and protecting the environment and especially technology transfer as well as absorb the lessons from countries that have experience in this area," Hoang Mai said.

 

Along with the development and the connection to the global trend, Vietnam is regarded by international experts as one of the typical example implementing policy of sustainable development with a vision to 2050. Vietnam is also seen as a "bridge" for cooperation, transfer of technology between countries in Europe and Asia. Experts said that the need for improving the use of resources is the trend of business in Asian countries, especially in the manufacturing and distribution of food. However, these improvements need to be invested not only on the issue of financial resources, time, technology, more importantly the transfer needs to be systematic, in which, businesses play a key role. In addition, the link between businesses, government and consumers has become extremely important in the development of sustainable technologies and more efficient use of natural resources.