Robin Gwynn

Vietnam tackles climate change

Visiting Vietnam for the first time has been an eye-opening experience. It shares with many other countries an extreme vulnerability to climate change - sea-level rise will impact on the livelihoods of millions in the river deltas and along the extended coastline, putting food security in jeopardy alongside other impacts. (A recent study by the Asia Development Bank, supported by the UK Government, found that rice production could halve by the end of this century if nothing is done).

But the Vietnamese Government has got hold of the threat and is responding. Both the President and PM are involved, with Ministers from a range of Departments working together to implement their National Plan. It's an example from which other vulnerable countries can draw lessons. It was also good to see how a country like Vietnam is keen to seize opportunities to develop a low carbon future, eg in renewable energy and energy efficiency - without waiting for the world's bigger economies to lead the way. Again - an example to others.     
                                        
The Vietnamese are also keen to explore my particular brief - to see if climate vulnerable countries can work together more to exert positive pressure for an ambitious outcome at the Copenhagen Climate Conference this December. We believe it's important both for moral and economic reasons that the bigger economies of the world should take account of the plight of vulnerable people around the world in working for an ambitious outcome at Copenhagen.

On a personal note, I didn't see much of Hanoi beyond the meeting venues, but even in that time was struck by the relaxed feel of the city. Relaxed that is unless you were driving, given the huge number of scooters and mopeds on the streets and the at-most casual observance of road rules. At times it felt as if we were being enveloped by a gentle flood as humans on two wheels flowed up to and around our vehicle, with all road users apparently giving way gracefully to each other without any obvious temptation to road rage or other frustrations. Would the concept of "naked streets" work so well in the UK, I wonder? Amazingly enough I saw no accidents or collisions of any kind despite the thousands of individual moving objects at times - though I'm reliably informed by colleagues in Hanoi that accidents do happen, and that the onset of rainy weather quickly removes the romantic quality of the scenes I witnessed.

Posted at 17:31 07 October 2009 by Robin Gwynn  |  Comments[0]