A recent conference on high resolution weather forecast in Hanoi haswarned Vietnam is facing higher temperatures, lower summer rainfalltotals, stronger storms, and rising sea levels from now until 2050.
The conference was jointly organised by the Vietnam Institute ofMeteorology, Hydrology and Environment, the University of NaturalSciences , and the Australian Scientific and Industrial ResearchOrganisation.
Experts predict that temperatures innorthern Vietnam will rise by around 0.8–3.4 degrees Celsius by2050 and continue upwards during the late 21 st century. The surgingfrequency of hotter days is bound to affect agricultural production.
Summer rainfall will decline in most areas. However, thecentral region could buck this trend with summer rainfalls increasinginstead.
East Sea storms may become rarer but moreintense, threatening flash flooding and landslides in vulnerablenorthern mountainous, central and central highland provinces.
Thehigh resolution forecasts suggest sea level rises of 100mm–400mm alongthe entire Vietnamese coast until the end of the 21st century,negatively impacting marine biology and coastal communities.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Hareiterated the unpredictability of climate change and its potential tocreate a variety of dangerous extreme weather events.
To improveVietnam ’s understanding of climate change’s possible outcomes, Haurged relevant agencies to work together on devising worst-case scenariomodels and responses by 2015. He expressed his hope that internationalexperts will help Vietnam cope with climate change’s challenges.-VNA