Environment

The national action plan on air quality control until 2020 with a vision to 2025, which aims to strictly monitor sources of exhaust fumes, especially industrial fumes, has been approved by the Prime Minister.

The government of HCM City on June 3 signed a 450-million-USD contract with a private company for a project to prevent tidal flooding in a 570-sq km area of the city.

Diverse activities are taking place nationwide to respond to World Environment Day, June 5.

Dubai on Thursday announced plans to build a 1,000-megawatt solar power plant by 2030, the year it aims to turn to renewable energies for 25 percent of electricity needs.

The sluggish construction of a water supply plant in the northern province of Ninh Binh Province has caused more than 1,000 local households left to thirst for clean water.

Dredging and filling activities during China’s illegal construction and reinforcement of man-made islands in Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago have caused considerable losses of and irreversible damage to the ecosystem here, particularly beautiful and unique coral reefs.

On June 1, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) held a conference in Hanoi on “Zero Tolerance for Wildlife Crime”.

Environmental protection in Hạ Long Bay, in the northern province of Quảng Ninh, remains difficult as large amounts of rubbish are generated by tourists and rubbish collection activitiy is not effective, according to local authorities.

The capital may lose its green lungs as many lakes in Hanoi are disappearing because of construction or have been heavily polluted by households waste for years.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe agreed on major orientations to deepen the Viet Nam-Japan extensive strategic partnership during their cordial talks on Saturday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has called for the cancellation of a hydropower project in Dak Lak Province due to its possible environmental threat.

The Vietnam Fisheries Association has urged the government and concerned ministries to speed up the investigation into the recent mass fish deaths in the central region.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved US$119 million in additional financing for an ongoing project to respond to key urban development challenges focusing on assuring water supply and wastewater needs of selected urban areas in Vietnam.

An official from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has claimed the ministry will announce the official cause of the mass fish deaths when the investigation is finally finished, denying that they are burying the news.

HCM City authorities said they have cancelled the licences of hundreds of suspended public projects that have affected the lives of the public, but many people said a number of projects remain “suspended” and continue to affect their living conditions.

Hanoi is facing more serious flooding this year and the city's drainage system remains still unable to deal with heavy rains.

The Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) has pledged 50,000 USD of aid to save elephants in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak between 2016 and 2017.

Beijing plans to roll out China's tightest fuel standards by January 2017, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday citing the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, as the smog-choked city aims to drastically cut vehicle emission.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed former Irish president Mary Robinson and Kenyan diplomat Macharia Kamau as special envoys for El Nino and climate.