Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked ministries and sectors to continue updating climate forecasts and have an overall plan for irrigation, hydropower plants, . . .

Phu Can Lake in Krong Pa District, Gia Lai Province, which can hold more than 1 million cubic metres of water, is now completely dry - and climate change is being blamed.

Since the national target programme to respond to climate change was kicked off last year, Viet Nam has built and published a scenario of climate change mechanisms.

According to the scenario, by the end of the century, the temperature in the country will probably rise by 2.3 degree Celsius, rainfall will increase by about 5 per cent and the sea level can be up to 75cm higher than the levels from the 1980-99 period.

An increase of 75cm in sea levels could potentially flood 19 per cent of the Red River Delta area. A rise of one meter in sea levels by 2100 could flood up to 38 per cent of the Mekong Delta area.

Prime Minister Dung also requested ministries and sectors to boost dissemination activities in order to raise people’s awareness of climate change and rising sea levels.

He tasked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to overhaul the electricity system and called for more investment in solar and wind energy projects.

Dung asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to allocate more funds to help plan and implement projects that would respond to climate change and rising sea levels.

Former President Tran Duc Luong said that the Government should continue calling for technical and financial assistance from international communities and developed countries in order to deal with the problem.

As the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has calculated, nearly VND2 trillion (US$108 million) will be needed for the implementation of the climate change response programme by 2015, with half of the amount provided by international organisations and donors.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen, also deputy head of the programme steering committee, said that the committee would create a national programme of science and technology on climate change and continue updating forecasts concerning climate change.

The ministry would also include climate factors in the Strategy for Socio-economic Development in 10 years and the Plan for Socio-economic Development in five years to work out suitable measures and to mobilise necessary resources, Nguyen said.

It would have programmes and issue books on climate change so that 80 per cent of population and 100 per cent of State officials would have basic knowledge about climate change by 2015, he added.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News