Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) inconjunction with Australia ’s Monash University hosted aninternational seminar in Hanoi on June 5 to discuss policies toefficiently deal with climate change in Vietnam.

Vietnam is assessed as one of the nations gravely affected byclimate change. According to the latest scenario, by the late 21 stcentury, the country will see an average temperature increasing 2.1 to3.3 degrees Celsius and sea level rising 1 metre from the 1980-1990period.

Sea level rise would likely flood 40 percent of land areain the Mekong Delta, 11 percent of the Red River area and 3 percentof other coastal provinces. It means that about 12 percent of thepopulation would be affected directly and about 10 percent of GDP wouldbe lost.

Speaking at the event, MoNRE DeputyMinister Nguyen Linh Ngoc said the Vietnamese Government has been wellaware of both positive and negative impacts of climate change and takenstrategic actions to effectively cope with climate change with supportfrom the international community.

The country hastaken initiative in dealing with natural disasters and sea level rise,ensuring food and water security and social safety and reducinggreenhouse gas emissions.

It has also focused onimproving the management capacity and people’s awareness of climatechange and developing science and technology to deal with this issue,Ngoc said.

Representatives from the MonashUniversity affirmed that with its experience in this field theuniversity will help the Vietnamese Government make suitable policies todeal with climate change, popularise responsive measures among ethnicminority groups, as well as help Vietnamese scientists createsalinity-resistant rice varieties.-VNA