Japan and France have committed a total of 134 million USD in ODA loans for Vietnam to cope with climage change.

Agreements for the “Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change” (SP-RCC) were signed in Hanoi on June 18 by Motonori Tsuno, Chief Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Vietnam Office, Alain Henry, Director of the French Development Agency (AFD) Vietnam, and Tran Xuan Ha, Vice Minister of Finance.

Of the total 134 million USD, Japan contributes 10 billion Japanese Yen (110 million USD) and France contributes 20 million euros (24 million USD).

SP-RCC is a Japan-initiated programme to support developing countries to tackle climate change, which is posing serious threat to many countries including Vietnam .

According to UNDP’s Human Development Report 2007/2008, under the 1-metre sea level rise scenario, about 22 million people or a quarter of the Vietnam’s population will have to be resettled and much of the agricultural land will be exposed to extreme salinisation and crop damaging due to flooding in the Mekong Delta.

To deal with these challenges, the Vietnamese Government ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol in 1994 and 2002, respectively, and issued the National Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change (NTP-RCC) in December 2008.

“The SP-RCC programme will not only support the implementation of the NTP-RCC but it will serve as a platform for policy dialogue between Vietnam and its development partners as well as other concerned donors in order to enhance the aid effectiveness to Vietnam in this issue,” said Tsuno.

Tsuno added that this programme is only a starting point for JICA’s climate change related activities in Vietnam with the ultimate purpose to strengthen the institutional environment for tackling climate change.

For his part, Henry said AFD is willing to support Vietnam to implement strategies on promoting energy efficiency principles and renewable energy development, to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also reinforce Vietnam’s economy resilience to external shocks, such as those induced by fossil fuel prices volatility, as well as its overall energy security, by reducing the exposure of Vietnam to fossil fuel imports.

Vietnam is the second country in Asia (after Indonesia ) that Japan and France provide preferential loans for coping with climate change./.