Viet Nam, Japan expand local cooperation on climate change adaptation

On November 25, within the framework of the Viet Nam–Japan Local Cooperation Forum held in Quang Ninh, a seminar titled "Enhancing Resilience and Smart Adaptation to Climate Change" took place.

In his introductory remarks, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Le Cong Thanh emphasized that climate change is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable, causing damages that far exceed the capacity of traditional forecasting methods. Meanwhile, Japan's valuable lessons and experience can support Viet Nam, especially in developing risk management systems, effective disaster response models, and infrastructure facilities capable of withstanding extreme climate.

Enhancing resilience of infrastructure

According to Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh, Japan has accompanied Viet Nam for decades through a wide range of critical projects, including early warning and forecasting systems on major river basins, dam and reservoir safety enhancement, urban flood-control infrastructure development, smart agriculture models, and emergency assistance during natural disasters. Particularly, local-level cooperation has emerged as a remarkable highlight, where strategic commitments between the two governments are transformed into concrete, practical projects that deliver direct benefits to communities. Effective cooperation models in Nghe An, Can Tho, and other localities are creating an important foundation for future expansion.

Two typical projects supported by Japan are the Sabo dam model in Son La and the disaster monitoring and surveillance system on the Vu Gia–Thu Bon basin in Central Vietnam. These solutions are generating clear, measurable improvements in Viet Nam's disaster prevention capacity. These are model solutions that can be replicated in the coming period.

Sharing the current impacts of climate change in the locality, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Deputy Secretary of the Can Tho Party Committee, stated that flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion are becoming increasingly severe, while drainage, water supply–sewerage systems, and treatment plants remain insufficient and underdeveloped. Following administrative boundary adjustments, Can Tho now has a larger population and land area and is aiming to become a regional growth pole by 2030 and an ecological–green–smart city by 2050.

Faced with this reality, the city is focusing on strengthening its capacity in climate-resilient urban planning, building smart drainage systems, constructing anti-erosion embankments, expanding its network of rain–flood monitoring equipment, and establishing flood management and early warning models. These are all fields in which Japan has extensive experience.

Deputy Secretary Nguyen Tuan Anh also called for deeper cooperation with Japan in underground drainage projects, smart regulating reservoirs, high-capacity pumping stations, and riverbank erosion control solutions. The two sides could also cooperate on water-supply plants, wastewater-treatment projects, breakwaters, and port-connecting routes that meet climate-resilience and safety standards. The city also prioritizes shifting toward green transport, renewable energy, and waste treatment using Japanese technologies.

Modernizing disaster risk management technologies

According to the representative of the Ministry of Science and Technology, natural disasters in 2025 caused severe damage, posing an urgent need to modernize disaster risk management technologies. To address these challenges, the Ministry proposed cooperation with Japan in developing a set of digital tools built on four key pillars. The Digital Twin pillar enables disaster simulation and supports assessing risk levels. AI (artificial intelligence) is applied for analysis, forecasting, and early warning. Satellite technology allows wide-scale observation, damage assessment, and environmental monitoring. The final pillar, data governance, emphasizes the integration, sharing, and efficient use of digital data systems.

A key area of cooperation is urban disaster modeling and simulation, with initial pilot implementation in coastal cities. Simulation technologies help construct scenarios for floods and severe storms to anticipate risks, helping to design appropriate drainage  and resident evacuation plans. It is also a tool for assessing the load-bearing capacity of infrastructure under extreme conditions.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the two countries have significant potential to strengthen cooperation in AI research and development for meteorological and seismic data analysis. AI is expected to improve the speed and accuracy of forecasting through machine-learning models for flood and landslide forecasts. It can also support rapid and precise warning issuance, as well as propose emergency response options based on real-time data.

In satellite imagery applications, Viet Nam proposed that the Japanese side support wide-scale environmental monitoring in real time. Satellite data would be used to observe coastlines, erosion and landslide points, forest resources, flood levels, and sea-level rise, particularly in the Mekong Delta. These data also form the basis for post-disaster damage assessment maps, helping accelerate recovery work.

Based on this cooperation, Viet Nam plans to develop a national disaster data management platform that operates seamlessly and uniformly. Core components of this partnership include promoting inter-agency data sharing based on Japanese experience, expanding data to encourage community-driven innovation, and strengthening cooperation with the private sector to develop more effective disaster forecasting, response, and recovery solutions.

At the forum, representatives from Japanese localities and enterprises presented their ongoing experiences and solutions related to climate change adaptation. Shiga Prefecture shared its expertise in water management, circular economy, emission reduction, and green development.

Yamanashi prefecture introduced advanced perspectives on green hydrogen production technologies, along with promising models for clean energy production and consumption applicable to many localities in Viet Nam. Pacific Consultants presented modern solutions for rainwater storage, flood control, and early warning, which are well aligned with increasingly complex natural disaster conditions in Viet Nam. JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation) outlined its orientation toward support in green finance, energy transition, and public–private cooperation under the AZEC/GX framework, opening important opportunities for collaboration between the two countries' localities.

Delegates from both sides agreed that climate change response offers substantial potential and is a key pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Viet Nam and Japan. These foundations are expected to accelerate the transformation of local cooperation activities into practical projects and initiatives that deliver direct benefits to communities, especially in regions heavily affected by climate change.