Rapid economic growth in Vietnam over the last ten years, and its associated industrialization, urbanization, as well as increased exploitation of natural resources, has created significant pressures for the environment.

The increasing deterioration of environmental conditions is emerging as a barrier to growth and development.

Climate change challenges, prominent on our agenda, are multisectoral and not just environmental but they often have a shared environmental dimension in their causes, impacts, or solutions.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ENVIRONMENT GROUP

The Bank’s environment agenda in Vietnam is focused on ensuring environmental sustainability within Vietnam's development and growth and in ongoing and future projects as well as on analytical works, and safeguards.

The Bank closely aligns its priorities with those of the Government of Vietnam as articulated in the Country Partnership Strategy.

The third of four pillars of the Country Partnership Strategy for Vietnam for the period 2007 to 2011 refers to “Strengthening Natural Resources and Environmental Management”.

1. Climate Change: Considerable analytical work is underway on adaptation issues and this work is starting to influence design of our projects. On the mitigation side, work focuses on efforts to mainstream greenhouse gas mitigation into the Bank’s portfolio through carbon finance projects and other mechanisms. Much larger mitigation/clean technology projects are being considered. 
2. Pollution and Hazardous Waste Management: Extensive analytical work, as well as some direct investments in technical assistance and pollution management through grants and loans, compose the work of the World Bank in this sector. 
3. Hazardous Chemical Phase-out Programs: Vietnam is a signatory of both the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The World Bank supports Vietnam to meet its commitments under these conventions through a series of projects to phase-out ozone depleting substance (ODS), as well as to ensure the safe management of PCBs and their eventual phase-out. 
4. Biodiversity Conservation: Vietnam’s forests, waters and wetlands are characterized by a high level of endemism, diversity, and threat to their continuing existence. The Bank’s support for conservation is largely through a number of existing activities in the fields of forestry and biodiversity management in protected areas. 
5. Intergrated Coastal Zone Management: Coastal zone management is crucial for an integrated development approach in Vietnam. Rising temperatures and their impacts on sea levels and fish stocks make fisheries and aquaculture topics of continued interest for Bank’s possible future involvement, together with integrating coastal issues into regional development, particularly in Mekong Delta region.  
6. Environmental Policies: Sector-specific examples of environmental policy dialogue can be found in almost all Bank projects. At a broader level, we engage with the Government of Vietnam on environmental policy work through Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs) and various mechanisms of support to planning processes. 
7. Environmental Impact Assessment: The Bank in Vietnam supports the integration of environmental considerations into projects and development programs in two important ways: i) by incorporating and strengthening Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) in Vietnamese national systems; and ii) ensuring compliance with World Bank safeguard policies to minimize environmental impacts of our projects and maximize environmental benefits.