Ho Chi Minh City plans for adaptation

Bernama (Malaysia): Vietnam's largest economic hub has been identified as one of the 10 cities in the world most likely to be severely affected by climate change, and the need to deploy an adaptation plan is urgent, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported quoting officials as saying.

Ayumi Konishi, the Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s country director for Vietnam, said the effects of climate change could cause a 7.3 percent drop in the city's GDP in the near future. Konishi spoke at a workshop on Tuesday here on the impact of climate change and the need for the city to move from study to action. The municipal People's Committee and ADB organised the workshop.

The HCM City Adaptation to Climate Change study, which is being carried out with financing from the ADB and the International Centre for Environmental Management (ICEM) in partnership with the city People's Committee, is an initial step in a planned response to the challenges in adapting to climate change.

"The study explores climate threats and their impact on areas, communities and sectors in the city and makes recommendations for adaptation options," Jeremy Carew-Reid, director of the ICEM, said.

The report identifies a number of key principles to guide climate change adaptation in HCM City, including building on experiences in responding to natural disasters, rehabilitating and maintaining flexibility and resilience in city design, and decentralising adaptation capacity. The key recommendation arising from the study is the development of a HCM City Climate Change Adaptation plan to be prepared by the People's Committee in accordance with the National Target Plan….

Motorcycling in Ho Chi Minh City, shot by Brian Jeffery Beggerly from Singapore, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License