To live in harmony with climate changeBy Trung Chanh The rice monoculture is now obsolete given the impacts of climate change in Vietnam. A Mekong Delta famer harvests water lily during an interval between two rice crops – PHOTO: LE HOANG VU The adverse impacts of climate change are disrupting the livelihoods and production practices of residents in the Mekong Delta. Yet necessity is the mother of invention as adaptation models have emerged. Climate change has exerted tremendous impacts on livelihoods and production activities of local residents. River bank and coastal erosion is a case in point. “This is the problem we need to focus on solving,” says Nguyen Huu Lap, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Ben Tre Province, at the workshop “After a Year of Implementing Government Resolution No. 120 on Sustainable and Climate Change Adatation of the Mekong Delta.” During the event organized by the Saigon Times Group in cooperation with Can … [Read more...] about To live in harmony with climate change
Natural events that cause climate change
Sea tourism industry coping with climate change
Coastal erosion is one of the biggest threats faced by the sea tourism industry, according to the Tourism Development Research Institute. With more than 1 million square kilometers of sea surface, over 2,770 islands, and a range of beaches with different characteristics, Vietnam has great potentials to develop sea tourism. However, the sector faces a lot of challenges due to increasing environmental pollution. The beaches stretching from Da Nang City to Binh Thuan province in the central region, together with resorts, tourism sites and residential quarters, are in danger of serious erosion. Some beaches have disappeared, while some others have eroded, affecting natural resources in low-lying coastal areas, and damaging protected areas, ecotourism zones and tourist infrastructure. Some technical facilities have been either forced to move or have fallen into business stagnation. Natural disasters have occurred more often. Most recently, Da Nang beach, one of the six most … [Read more...] about Sea tourism industry coping with climate change
UN chief urges leaders to step up fight on climate change
Viet Nam News NEW YORK — UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday vowed to keep pressing global leaders to take greater action against human-caused climate change as temperatures rise and natural disasters wreak havoc around the world. "If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us," Guterres told an audience of diplomats, youth representatives and UN staff while announcing plans to convene a 2019 climate summit next September in New York. The Paris climate agreement, which went into effect in late 2016 as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, aims to keep an increase in average world temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius -- and ideally closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- compared to pre-industrial levels so as to limit the occurrence of droughts, floods, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other adverse effects of global … [Read more...] about UN chief urges leaders to step up fight on climate change
Mobilising resources to cope with climate change
The Mekong Delta is one of the three deltas most hit by climate change in the world due to rising sea levels. A climate change scenario shows that the temperature at the end of the century will increase by roughly 3.4 degrees Celsius, and if the sea level rises to 100 centimetres, approximately 40% of the land area of the delta will be flooded. Climate change also increases the risk of natural disasters and extreme weather events, such as heavy rains, storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes, which will affect the livelihoods of people in the region. The exploitation of upstream water resources, especially the construction of hydropower dams, has also changed the flow of water, reduced the amount of sediment and fisheries resources, as well as causing deep salinisation in the region and negative impacts on the local socio-economic development. Furthermore, riverbank, canal and coastline erosion are occurring in most of the Mekong Delta provinces. The latest statistics show that the whole … [Read more...] about Mobilising resources to cope with climate change
Hi-tech application touted as solution to climate change adaptation
Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Can Tho (VNA) - Vietnam has been promoting the application of high technologies in agriculture production as part of efforts to adapt to climate change and strive towards sustainable agriculture development, heard the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on July 19. Participants to the event are debating impacts caused by climate change on the regional agriculture as well as advantages and challenges of the progress towards sustainable agricultural development and adaptation to climate change in ASEM member countries. Dr. Tang The Cuong, Director of the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment stressed that Vietnam considers climate change response as a vital task as it is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. The Vietnamese Government has taken drastic actions in restructuring its economy, especially agricultural restructuring, in order to cope with climate … [Read more...] about Hi-tech application touted as solution to climate change adaptation