Thanh Nien News 13 Jan 09;
Vietnam’s environment agency Monday formally launched its VND1.96 trillion (US$112.44 million) program to protect the country from the effects of climate change.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said the money will be spent assessing the impacts of climate changes, developing technology, increasing the ability of environmental agencies and training staff.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the spending in December.
Vietnam is among the five countries to be affected most adversely by climate change and the rising sea levels after 2050, the World Bank said in a 2007 report.
Rising sea-levels, more intense typhoons, higher temperatures and increased drought and flooding threaten to drag millions of Vietnamese people back into poverty, international charity group Oxfam reported last year.
The average temperature in Vietnam is expected to increase by three degrees Celsius and the sea level to rise by one meter by 2100.
Rising sea levels will directly threaten 10 percent of the country’s population and wipe 10 percent from gross domestic production (GDP).
Most of the Mekong Delta area will be submerged, the World Bank said.
The densely-populated Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s main rice growing region and produces more than half the country’s fish and seafood exports.
Authorities in November said that scientists from the US and Vietnam will study the impact of climate change on the Mekong Delta and other low-lying river regions around the world.
Gregory Smith, head of the National Wetlands Research Center of the US Interior Department, said the aim of the joint study was to gather “large-scale data sets” to help model the impact of rising sea levels and worsening cyclonic storms on river deltas, man-made structures and communities.
Reported by Mai Vong
