Friday, December 5, 2008

Denmark assists Vietnam

ScandAsia: With the Copenhagen-based Danida Board having just recently approved a new $ 40 million climate change programme for Vietnam to assist the country in it climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, Danish ambassador to Vietnam Peter Lysholt Hansen explains to VIR´s Thu Ha why the Nordic government is so concerned about this burning global issue. "Given a lot of burning environmental problems facing Vietnam today, which are caused by various hazardous gases and solid substances, why does the Danish government focus on assisting Vietnam to deal with the climate change issues, which chiefly involve green house gases"?

"Denmark has for many years given support to the environment sector in Vietnam and continues to do so. Actually, Denmark is supporting a comprehensive environment program (around USD 10 million) covering pollution control in poor densely populated area, environmentally sustainable development in poor urban areas, cleaner production in industries, and development of marine protected areas". "With the future support for climate change adaptation and mitigation Denmark adds a new dimension to its development cooperation with Vietnam. Vietnam itself at present is not a significant producer of green house gases which are to a large extend responsible for climate change. However, with it long coastal line and large areas of lowland Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the World to climate change. And climate change is certainly a development issue which threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore it is most welcomed that the Government of Vietnam fully recognizes the importance of dealing with this issue on an urgent basis".

"Despite rich local knowledge and experience at grass root level in dealing with disasters, climate change work including research, technologies and financing is new in Vietnam. At the same time climate change is not generally well understood. Climate change is not only about traditional disaster phenomenon’s ( storms, floods and droughts) but also about abnormality of weather/climate, uncertainty of abrupt climate events ( South moving storms, changing path-ways of cyclones, extreme rainfall and temperatures) and the possible consequences for diseases and cropping patterns…".

…."Denmark is in the forefront in Vietnam when it comes to aid harmonization and effectiveness and has been moving rapidly towards aligning to Vietnamese Government system and regulations instead of creating parallel systems and norms. The new Danish support to climate change adaptation and mitigation will also be aligned to Government priorities and systems and will be sector budget support to the following two national programs: 1) National Target Programme on responding to climate change and the National Programme on Energy Efficiency. The funds will be managed by government authorities at national and local levels for serving their needs and priorities"….

Market throng on Chau Van Diep street, Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Shot by Kham Tran - www.khamtran.com, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

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