The French Development Agency (AFD) has approved a 20-million-EUR loan for Vietnam as part of the Support Programme to respond to climate change (SP-RCC).

This budgetary support comes in addition to the 10-billion-Yen loan (around 85 millions EUR) that has been granted by the Japanese government to support this initiative, said a press release issued by the French Embassy to Vietnam on May 14.

This programme aims at promoting the development of a legal and regulatory framework to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation measures as well as at facilitating the implementation of pilot actions.

In case the sea-level rises 1 metre, close to 5 percent of Vietnam ’s land, 11 percent of the country’s population and, 7 percent of its agricultural land would be affected. Vietnam ’s GDP would suffer from a 10 percent negative impact, the press release said.

To overcome these challenges, the Vietnamese Government has approved the National Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change (NTP-RCC) in December 2008.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and AFD will support NTP-RCC implementation through their commitment to finance SP-RCC./.