Vietnam may face adverse impacts of the climate change as early as from 2020, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) study made public in Hanoi on April 28.

“Rainfall could appreciably decline in Vietnam in the coming decades and over 12 million people could be affected by increased water stress,” the ADB warns in the study, titled “The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia”.

By the end of this century, Vietnam’s rice production could dramatically decline and rising sea levels could submerge tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and force the relocation of thousands of families living in coastal communities, it said.

According to the study, if the world continues with “business as usual”, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam could experience combined damages equivalent to more than 6 percent of their countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) every year by the end of this century, dwarfing the costs of the current financial crisis.

It suggested that Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations should address the dual threats of climate change and the global financial crisis by introducing “green stimulus” programmes - as part of larger stimulus packages – that can simultaneously strengthen economies, create jobs, reduce poverty, protect vulnerable communities and lower carbon emissions.

The ADB noted that “win-win” mitigation options in the energy sector, especially more efficient power plants, could allow Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to mitigate carbon emissions up to 40 percent by 2020.

Speaking at the announcement ceremony, ADB Country Director in Vietnam Ayumi Konishi said the report confirms the belief that Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change.

Konishi spoke highly of Vietnam’s national objective programme on dealing with climate change, saying that the country should speed up the implementation of inter-sector and inter-ministry coordination mechanisms in mitigating climate change impacts.

The ADB representative also affirmed the bank’s commitment to supporting the Vietnamese government’s efforts to minimise the harmful effects of climate change and raise public awareness of these impacts./.