Viet Nam ranks climate change as high priority

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai told a workshop in Hanoi on March 4 that the annual budget for climate change had reached trillions of Vietnamese dong.

“Vietnam has been working hard to realize its international commitments to reduce natural calamities and adjust to climate change,” said the deputy PM.

The event, officially titled as the “Second national forum on natural disaster reduction and climate change adjustment”, was co-sponsored by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). It targeted agencies at all levels to ask them to join hands in research and dialogue as well as sharing information and human and financial resources to reduce natural disasters and the impacts of climate change.

The forum also launched a campaign in response to UNISDR’s global programme for “Disaster Resilient Cities” and encouraged several cities in Vietnam to join the programme.

Situated in one of five areas most prone to storms in the Asia-Pacific, Vietnam has suffered losses from natural disasters over the past decade, equal to 1.5 percent of its GDP.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said climate change has caused more natural disasters which have become increasingly complex and unpredictable.

Agricultural production and rural areas are the worst hit by such events, he noted.

In 2010 alone, natural disasters left 362 people dead or missing, destroyed over 6,000 houses and flooded another 470,000 while damaging more than 300,000 ha of agricultural land.

Material damages caused by natural disasters were estimated at VND16 trillion last year.

UNDP representative Setsuko Yamazaki urged Vietnam to take the initiative by investing in protective measures to cope with climate change and control natural disasters as an integral part of its national development strategy.

This is a necessary move as natural calamities could negate Vietnam’s previous achievements in development and growth, and its efforts towards achieving the Millennium Goals, said the representative from the UN development agency.

She also called on the Vietnamese Government to get the private sector, social organisations and NGOs involved in poverty reduction, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction as well as in implementing social security.

Australian Ambassador Allaster Cox pledged to cooperate further with Vietnam in reducing natural disasters and adjusting to climate change.