Vietnam fights global warming

Viet Nam News: Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a seven-year VND2.3 trillion (US$135 million) national programme to deal with climate change. The programme, to begin next year, will focus on the rate of change and introduction of an action plan to deal with the short and long-term consequences of climate change.

The programme’s major tasks will include: Assessment of the impact of climate change on Viet Nam; Mapping measures to cope with its consequences; Building scientific and technological programmes for climate change; Raising public awareness about climate change; and Increasing international co-operation to deal with the consequences of climate change and devising actions plans for each locality and sector.

Viet Nam was among the countries that would be hardest hit by the global warming and rising sea levels, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan told a Vietnam News Agency reporter at the 14th session of the Climate Change Convention in Pozna, Poland on Thursday. "Implementing this programme will require a huge use of resources – both the workforce and finance," he said. "It must be considered a major challenge to Viet Nam in the context of the global financial crisis and its impact on the economy."….