Source: Voice of Vietnam (Viet Nam)
Source type: Radio
Published on: 06 Sep 2010

More than 150 delegates from Demark, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam gathered for an international ASEM forum on climate change being held in Quang Ninh on September 6-7.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha emphasised that the serious consequence of climate change suffered by Vietnam remain a permanent threat to its achieving the millennium development goals for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Therefore, the Vietnamese Government early approved and joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol. It has directly guided a number of activities to cope with climate change and has authorised the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) to carry out these activities.

In early 2009, the MONRE completed writing scripts for climate change, especially rising sea levels. It expects to finish updating in the scripts by the end of 2010, and will continue to update them until 2015 and even to 2100.

The forum will help concretise a general plan and an action programme on Vietnam-EU relationship by 2010 with a vision to 2015, especially in the fields of natural resources and environment. Under the plan, EU member countries will share experiences with and support Vietnam in dealing with climate change.

Participants also discussed main issues related to the impact of climate change, such as vulnerableness and adaptiveness, opportunity and challenge for low-carbon economies, and ASEM co-operation to deal with climate change.