Vietnam PM Urges to Complete National Action Plan on Climate Change

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the National Committee on Climate Change and other agencies to soon finish a national action plan on climate change amid its greatly negative impacts. The PM made the request while chairing the committee’s first session in Hanoi on Jan 11, state media reported. Dung highlighted that Vietnam is one of the hardest-hit countries by climate change, especially rising sea levels, urging drastic actions and effective solutions to ensure the country’s sustainable development as coping with climate change challenge is an urgent national issue.
The PM also asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to complete the green growth strategy framework for the 2011-2020 period, with a further vision to 2050, and other agencies to boost international cooperation and call for foreign support for climate change projects. After two years of assessing the climate change impacts and defining solutions to climate change over the past two years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has drafted the national action plan on climate change. In the 2012-2020 period, the plan will focus on climate change adaptation, actively respond to natural disasters and rising sea levels, ensuring food and water security, preventing floods in major cities and reinforcing river and sea dykes. The action plan will pay attention to reducing greenhouse effects and utilizing all resources to cope with climate change which is showing clear signs across Vietnam, such as the recent increase in atmospheric temperatures, droughts, floods, unseasonable storm, which will seriously damage agricultural production, its related processing industries, as well as sea, island areas and ecology, experts said. The draft action plan is expected to be submitted to the PM for approval in the first quarter of 2012. By the end of 2011, 15 out of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities had issued their own climate change action plans. Vietnam is listed among five hardest-hit countries by climate change. If sea level rises one meter, 5% of the country’s land, 11% of its population and 7% of its agricultural land would be affected with the losses estimated at 10% of GDP.  A number of foreign nations like Japan, Poland, Denmark, the U.S., the U.K. and Sweden have pledged to support Vietnam in tackling climate and environment issues. The Vietnamese government has so far mobilized more than $1.2 billion in aid from the international community in efforts to tackling the matter. (Lao Dong - Labor Jan 12 p2, Ha Noi Moi - New Hanoi Jan 12 p1, Sai Gon Giai Phong - Saigon Liberation Jan 12, Vietnamplus.vn Jan 11)