VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City needs to create a legal approach so that it can successfully develop programmes to cope with climate change, experts have said.

The city still lacks legal criteria for evaluating or determining what industries or areas will be most seriously hit by climate change, according to Nguyen Trung Viet of the Steering Committee of Climate Change.

The city also lacks a comprehensive database about industries or areas that could be most seriously affected.

Viet noted that programmes to cope with climate change could not be developed successfully without such a database.

Experts say general residential areas with insufficient infrastructure, such as District 12 as well as Can Gio, Hoc Mon and Binh Chanh districts, would be hit hard by climate change.

Many industrial zones in lowland areas, especially industrial clusters in the city, will also be hit hard by climate change.

If the sea level rises one metre, about 500 factories, which account for nine per cent of total factories in the city, and 16 industrial zones will be submerged under water, experts have warned.

Agricultural areas will be most seriously hit by climate change, according to the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The city has urbanised only 30 per cent of its total area. Of 24 districts, 10 districts are located in agricultural areas where farmers grow vegetables for sale to city residents.

Funds needed

According to the Steering Committee, the city will need to spend at least VND20 trillion (US$1 billion) to cope with climate change from now until 2015.

The amount would be spent mostly on research on how to effectively deal with global warming, Viet said.

Funds to develop programmes to cope with climate change would be sourced from support or loans from international organisations (50 per cent), State budget (30 per cent), local budget (10 per cent) and businesses (10 per cent).

Under a Netherlands-backed programme, the city will be given EUR6 million ($8.2 million) to develop climate-change initiatives that would focus on water resources, seaports, and floating cities for residents.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News