VietNamNet Bridge - More than 200 delegates from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia are attending a three-day international forum on climate change, which opened this morning (Oct 23) in Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

The Annual Coastal Forum, the third and the last, is held by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is part of the European Union-funded project on building resilience to climate change impacts in coastal Southeast Asia, which aims to increase adaptive capacity of people and the ecosystems on which they depend to cope with the anticipated impacts of climate change and plan for disaster risk reduction, through sound governance and planning.

At the forum, over 200 delegates representing local communities, state agencies, scientists, representatives of research institutions, non-governmental organizations and the media from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam will discuss the five key topics: coastal zone resilience, livelihood resilience, ecosystem resilience, gender and governance and the role of the media and communicating climate change and disaster risk reduction.

The three countries will also discuss the key challenges, lessons learnt and recommendations for both practitioners and policy-makers and deliver a joint declaration.

Speaking to the media at the opening session, Dr. Robert Mather, chief representatives of IUCN Southeast Asia Group and project manager said that the project will end this year but participating countries should maintain flexibility and diversity in making policies on and responding to climate change because "Nobody could know exactly how climate change risks will be in the next 5 years, 10 years or in the future."

The building resilience to climate change impacts in coastal Southeast Asia started in 2011 in eight coastal provinces, including HCM City, Ben Tre, Soc Trang, Kien Giang  and Trat and Chanthaburi in Thailand. The project will end this December.

According to a report of the Intergovernmental Committee for Climate Change, Vietnam is considered as one of the countries most affected by climate change. Its Mekong Delta is one of the world’s three most vulnerable deltas (together with the Nile Delta in Egypt and the Ganges Delta in Bangladesh) to the sea level rising.

Fully aware of serious impacts of climate change on the country’s sustainable development, the Vietnamese Government has joined and approved the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, at the same time directing its agencies to complete the system of legal documents as the legal foundation for preventing and mitigating natural disasters and coping with climate change.

In December 2008, the National Goal Program on Climate Change was approved. This was one of important efforts of the Government, with supports from international donors, in responding to climate change in Viet Nam. Some initial achievements in coping with climate change in Viet Nam have been recognized by the international community. To fruitfully deal with climate change and boost sustainable development, a national strategy on climate change with century-long visions, as the foundation for strategies, plans and programs, is very necessary for Vietnam in the current situation.

PV