The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has signed with Germany’s Hanns-Seidel Foundation a cooperation agreement on green growth and sustainable utility of natural resources in the 2014-2016 period.
At the signing ceremony in Hanoi on April 3, Deputy Minister Tran Hong Ha said the country is facing water, land and air pollution and declining ecosystem, which require work together of the whole community and support from both domestic and foreign organisations.
Vietnam is one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change, while the Mekong Delta region, the country’s rice granary, is among the three large deltas in the globe being hard hit.
Scientists forecast that if the sea level rises by one metre, about 70 percent of land in the Mekong Delta region will be intruded by salt water and Vietnam will lose two million hectares of farmland and many coastal localities will be inundated. If no prompt measures to deal with climate change are taken, natural resources may cause a total loss of up to 10 percent of the country’s GDP a year.
According to Deputy Minister Ha, Vietnam is prioritising the building of sea and river dykes, reservoirs, as well as working hard to recover mangrove swamps and replant forests in order to protect the water sources and deal with storms and floods.
At the event, the deputy minister also asked for more support from the Hanns-Seidel Foundation.
Vietnam and Germany can cooperate effectively in the fields that the European country holds advantages, including the environment, nuclear power ad renewable energy, he stated.-VNA
At the signing ceremony in Hanoi on April 3, Deputy Minister Tran Hong Ha said the country is facing water, land and air pollution and declining ecosystem, which require work together of the whole community and support from both domestic and foreign organisations.
Vietnam is one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change, while the Mekong Delta region, the country’s rice granary, is among the three large deltas in the globe being hard hit.
Scientists forecast that if the sea level rises by one metre, about 70 percent of land in the Mekong Delta region will be intruded by salt water and Vietnam will lose two million hectares of farmland and many coastal localities will be inundated. If no prompt measures to deal with climate change are taken, natural resources may cause a total loss of up to 10 percent of the country’s GDP a year.
According to Deputy Minister Ha, Vietnam is prioritising the building of sea and river dykes, reservoirs, as well as working hard to recover mangrove swamps and replant forests in order to protect the water sources and deal with storms and floods.
At the event, the deputy minister also asked for more support from the Hanns-Seidel Foundation.
Vietnam and Germany can cooperate effectively in the fields that the European country holds advantages, including the environment, nuclear power ad renewable energy, he stated.-VNA
