The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Denmark and Japan have pledged to fund a combined $510 million for Vietnam to deal with climate change, the Vietnam News Agency said Monday, citing a senior official. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen released the figure at a press briefing in Hanoi on Dec. 19 to review Vietnam’s results in the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Of the total, the UNDP and Denmark will grant a combined $60 million and Japan will provide $450 million in soft loans, Minister Nguyen noted. To tackle climate change, Nguyen mentioned five tasks consisting of strengthening sea dykes, protecting and developing forests, deploying disasters prevention activities, modernizing hydrometeorology forecast systems and boosting ways to protect granaries of Mekong Delta and Hong River regions. On the sideline of the global climate summit held in Copenhagen, the Vietnamese delegation had separate meetings with international agencies including the UNDP, the JICA, the World Bank and the host country to seek supports in the field, the minister said.
