Australia, ADB help VN tackle climate change

VGP – The Government of Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently committed to a donation of US $1.3 million for Việt Nam to cope with negative impacts of climate change in the Mekong Delta.

January 14, 2010 3:18 PM GMT+7

Illustration photo

A notice from ADB was quoted as saying that the aid will be spent on different projects to assess all threats of climate change in the region and figure out solutions to adapt to sea level rise and severe inundation.

Among US $1.3 million, the Government of Australia will supply US $800,000 and the ADB offers the remaining US $500,000. The Vietnamese Government will provide the counterpart funding of US $330,000 for the project.

ADB predicts that Việt Nam would be hit hard by climate change and the Mekong Delta, the country’s major granary, would be the most vulnerable region.

Initial researches show that around 31% of agro-fishery land areas in the region is supposed to be submerged when the sea level rises one meter in 2100. Then, severe impacts daily life of about 4.8 million people including 1.5 million poor residents.

In fact, there has been no comprehensive research on possible impacts of climate change in the Mekong Delta.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was entrusted to implement the project from January 2010 to April 2011./.

By Kim Loan