Vietnam Seeks More Funds to Cope with Climate Change

Vietnam is seeking more financial resources for its plans to combat climate change, said an environmental official said at a seminar on climate change in Hanoi last week. Nguyen Khac Hieu vice chief of the Steering Board for the Implementation of the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol made the call at the meeting held by the United Nations in Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is estimated to need VND1.965 trillion ($106.3 million) for a program to fight against climate change from now up to 2015, Hieu noted.  Of which, 50% will be raised from foreign assistances, 45% from state budget and the rest from other sources, he added. However, the country has received only $40 million from Denmark to implement climate change prevention projects from 2009 to 2013. The financial requirement for preventing climate change is estimated to account for 0.5% the gross domestic product (GDP) of developed countries, the participants said.
Seeking finances to cope with climate change will be a big challenge for developing countries, which are in the vulnerable group like Vietnam.