Vietnam Hanoi Hosts ASEAN Climate Change Meeting

The second meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC) is taking place in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi from April 19-21, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said April 19. Participants share the assessment results of the ASEAN-Germany project on efficient energy use and climate change mitigation for road transport sector and the result of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The delegates also exchanged information on the nomination of ASEAN members to the UNFCCC, the result of the AWGCC special meeting held in Indonesia’s Jakarta city on March 22, the ASEAN leaders’ draft declaration on climate change for the 17th conference of the parties to the UNFCCC and the 7th seminar of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Participants are also expected to put forward a draft action plan on climate change following the ASEAN leaders’ draft declaration on the issue and the ASEAN initiative on climate change. Earlier, AWGCC delegates made a fact-finding trip on climate change in the northern province of Bac Ninh which was funded by the German Organization for Technical Cooperation (GIZ) in clean air development in ASEAN. The first AWGCC meeting was held in Thailand’s Bangkok city last end-March.  Vietnam will need nearly $850 million per year to cope with impacts of climate change in the 2010-2050 period, the World Bank (WB) said. The Southeast Asian country is listed among five hardest-hit countries by climate change. If sea level rises one meter, 5% of Vietnam’s land, 11% of its population and 7% of its agricultural land would be affected with the losses estimated at 10% of GDP. (vietnamplus.vn April 19, Tuoi Tre – Youth April 20)