VietNamNet Bridge – Ngo Truong Thi, Director General-Chief of the National Office for Poverty Reduction under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, speaks to Dai Doan Ket (Great Unity) newspaper on the importance of sustainable poverty alleviation. How do climate change and natural disasters impact the national programme of poverty alleviation?Natural disasters are a permanent threat to our country. Two thirds of the country’s topography is hills and mountains with a long coast. In addition, Vietnam has a hot and humid climate, greatly influenced by seasonal monsoons. Generally speaking all these factors aid the country’s economic development. However, they also present many challenges to national development including natural disasters, floods, flash floods, storms, droughts and saline intrusion.On average, one out of every three people who escape poverty falls back into the poverty trap. Severe natural disasters are part of why this happens. It … [Read more...] about Climate change is yet another poverty trap
Climate change
One Planet Summit highlights 3 goals in climate change fight
The goals were highlighted in the speeches of the 3 co-chairmen, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, and Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN. Tuesday’s summit, which comes exactly two years after the signing of the historic Paris Agreement, reaffirmed the world’s commitment to fight climate change. … [Read more...] about One Planet Summit highlights 3 goals in climate change fight
City to brace itself against climate change
City to brace itself against climate changeBy Van Nam - The Saigon Times DailyHCMC – HCMC’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment is preparing a project to reduce the effects of climatic changes that loom as a threat to daily activities, according to the city’s environment department.He told the Daily on Tuesday that under the instruction of the city’s government, the department would try to complete the project by August 1.The department will estimate the amounts of discharged gases and waste that contribute to the greenhouse effect and then relevant departments will set a target for the reduction of gases and waste based on sustainable social and economic development.Viet said that the city would build ecologically sound buildings, upgrade power equipment to minimize costs at industrial enterprises and encourage technology renovations to reduce harmful smoke and waste.According to the department, HCMC has joined C40 Cities, a group of the … [Read more...] about City to brace itself against climate change
Local firms unprepared for climate change adaptation
Local firms unprepared for climate change adaptation Van Nam HCMC - Although many enterprises to some extent show their awareness of the impact of climate change on business and production activities, they have not taken specific actions to deal with climate change. Speaking at a conference on climate change in HCMC on Friday, Nguyen Tri Thanh, senior executive at the Asia Foundation, said a recent survey on more than 500 enterprises in 18 industrial parks showed that most enterprises have absolutely no plan for environment protection, emergency response or recovery after natural disasters. The effects of climate change in recent years include temperature rise, rainfall decrease in the north and increase in the south, more frequent droughts in the dry season and more devastating storms. According to Thanh, the most noticeable impacts of natural disasters and climate change on business and production activities are increasing production costs, bankruptcy after disasters, decreasing … [Read more...] about Local firms unprepared for climate change adaptation
AFD finances climate change adaptation
AFD finances climate change adaptation Tu Hoang HANOI -The French Development Agency (AFD) will provide a concessional loan of 52.35 million euros and a grant of one million euros for Can Tho City and Ninh Binh and Ha Tinh provinces to adapt to climate change and solve related issues. French Ambassador to Vietnam Jean-Noël Poirier, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha, and CEO of AFD Remy Rioux have signed two agreements on the loan and grant, the French embassy in Hanoi announced. The embassy said the financing agreements will support adaptation to climate change, as well as address rainfall regime modifications, the increase of severity and frequency of extreme weather events and rising sea levels in the northern province of Ninh Binh, the central coastal province of Ha Tinh and in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. In Ninh Binh, the project will be carried out in six districts with a total area of 55,000 hectares with 70% of it under paddy cultivation. The project will … [Read more...] about AFD finances climate change adaptation