LocationsHow Viet Nam has transformed challenges into opportunity
Adapting through adversity
May 27, 2025
Demand for electricity and other infrastructure has grown as more Vietnamese move to cities for economic advancement.
Photo: UNDP Viet Nam
Beyond Viet Nam’s high-rise cities, bustling urban life gives way to a diverse natural landscape. From caves and beaches, to highlands, forests, tea and coffee plantations and terraced rice fields, the country’s rich diversity safeguards some of the world’s most iconic species endemic to Asia, like the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey.
Viet Nam’s economy has grown steadily since early 2000s. Balancing growth with the protection of people and nature has been a key part of the country’s aspirations to become a high-income economy by 2045. Following decades of war and hardship, the country has swiftly transformed to tackle and adapt to new challenges.
Since 2014, through UNDP support Viet Nam has leveraged US$57 million in Global Environmental Facility (GEF) financing to catalyze more than US$270 million in government and US$217 million in private sector finance.
Balancing growth with the protection of people and nature has been a key part of Viet Nam's aspiration to become a high-income economy by 2045.
Photo: UNDP Viet Nam
Addressing the past to protect the future
Bui Quoc Ngon lives in Ha Tinh province, in one of Viet Nam’s remaining pesticide hotspots. His house stands just five metres from a chemical storage facility that has been there since the late 1960s. Over time, chemicals have seeped into the surrounding environment.
“We have all been ill for a while. My wife is constantly sick and has breast cancer because of the poisonous chemicals. My children are weak too. I myself have a neurological disease. Life is really hard.”
- Bui Quoc Ngon
During decades of war, which ended in 1975, Viet Nam was exposed to millions of litres of toxic chemicals, including dioxin, known as Agent Orange. These substances not only caused widespread death and disease but devastated forests, mangroves and farmland. At the same time, to combat poverty and food insecurity, pesticides and chemicals were heavily used to grow, rice, rubber, tea and coffee. Between 1957 and 1990, pesticide use rose from 100 tonnes to 21,600 tonnes per year, before many were banned in 1991.
Cleaning up for a safer future
Without proper knowledge of the health and environmental risks, farmers stored pesticides for years. Stockpiles eventually became hazardous hotspots, persisting for decades and contaminating soil, water, wildlife, and air. But Viet Nam chose radical action to address this toxic past. In 2002, it ratified the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Supported by the Government of Viet Nam, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP, the country accelerated efforts to remediate dioxin and clean up stockpiles of other chemicals and restore land.
Photo: UNDP Viet Nam
Rapid growth; rapid transition
“The path to net-zero is not only about emissions and energy. It is about people, and about creating a just transition, one that empowers every citizen to thrive in a new era of green and digital prosperity.”
- Ramla Khalidi, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam
Meanwhile economic growth did not slow down. As more people moved to urban areas in search of economic opportunities, the number of buildings needed to house them grew. Demand for electricity and infrastructure, powered mostly by coal, contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
Tackling greenhouse gas emissions and the waste created in pursuit of economic growth became a priority, with greener manufacturing approaches explored in industry, from paper manufacturing to plastics, textiles, pesticides and solvents. Since 2012, sequential investment by the GEF and the Government of Viet Nam have paved the way for green partnerships with the private sector to mitigate emissions, introduce more energy-efficient building methods, such as non-fired bricks which do not require fossil fuels for kilns, or locally-produced LED lights to reduce energy consumption.
Uniting public and private interests
"The EECB Project helped us assess the status of energy consumption in the building so as to come up with very cost-effective policies for energy efficiency. For example, we have changed our lighting equipment and air conditioning systems. Local air conditioning units have been replaced by inverter air conditioners, and especially the old chiller system has been replaced with a new air-cooling chiller system, which is very highly energy efficient".
- Nguyen Chi Nam, General Manager, The Ascott Limited
Private partnerships in chemical and plastics industries have powered change because they make economic sense. Collaboration between the Viet Nam Chemicals Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Northern Viet Nam Paint and Printing Ink Club showed that waste prevention costs less than treatment or disposal. The Coca Cola Foundation is working with authorities to explore plastic recycling and opportunities for waste transformation.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is collaborating with UNDP through a GEF-funded project with potential co-financing of up to US$100 million to invest in the waste sector. A new GEF Global Electronic Management (GEM) initiative is also underway, to address the growing challenge of e-waste especially in the informal sector.
Investing in resilient communities
When investments to protect Viet Nam’s environment began in 1991, supported by GEF, the focus was on restoring forest cover which had halved during the decades of war. Since then thousands of hectares of forest have been restored. But this alone is not enough. Conservation efforts have been tied to sustainable agroforestry, organic farming and ecotourism so that communities become more self-sufficient, powering their own businesses and income opportunities. Partnerships at all levels have been critical. In 2022, authorities in five provinces came together to overcome administrative divides towards a shared vision in the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve.
Today, Viet Nam faces a new challenge--rising sea levels, flooding, saltwater intrusion, and stronger storm surges resulting from climate change. Every year, 60,000 homes are damaged or destroyed due to climate-related disasters, making it harder for families to escape poverty. With support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), more than 4,000 hectares of mangroves have been restored, and 5,000 storm- and flood-resilient homes built. The lessons have informed national standards for climate-resilient housing, extended now to more than 300,000 households.
In parallel, the Community-Based Disaster Risk Management approach and a nationwide disaster risk data repository, made possible with support from the GCF, have supported community-based disaster risk management plans in 541 coastal communities. Another GCF-supported initiative in the Central Highlands and South-Central Coast regions is helping communities to manage increasing climate risks to agricultural production, boosting climate-resilient agricultural and access to water, information, credit and markets.
At the core of Viet Nam’s economic transformation has been the understanding that growth can never come at the cost of people and planet. This vision complements Viet Nam’s wider approach, investing in communities and supporting businesses to transition to a greener future while bringing people out of poverty, all while adapting to whatever new challenges may arise.
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