Vietnam: Fueling Change: How Women are Leading Viet Nam’s Just Energy Transition

Oct 21, 2024 | UN Women
View Original

In Viet Nam, climate change is causing storms, floods, and droughts to occur more often and with greater intensity. Dang Thi Nga, a member of a tea cooperative in Viet Nam’s Bắc Kạn Province, has experienced these impacts firsthand. “We had a lot of problems with storms and flooding. Everything was destroyed, including my rice field and my forest,” she says. Climate change is putting millions of people at heightened risk of injuries, displacement, food and water insecurity, and loss of livelihoods. Women like Dang Thi Nga often bear the brunt of these impacts in coping and rebuilding after a crisis. A lack of access to essential resources including information, financing and technology means that women tend to face greater challenges than men in such contexts.

The EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies (EmPower), a joint United Nations programme led by UN Women and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), seeks to address some of these challenges. Guided by the principle of Leaving No One Behind, the programme provides low interest loans to renewable energy enterprises led by women and individuals from marginalized communities in the Asia-Pacific region, helping finance climate-friendly solutions to build resilience.