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Post Info TOPIC: Global warming threatens food supply: Vietnam
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Global warming threatens food supply: Vietnam
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Global warming threatens food supply: Vietnam
 
AFP, 02 Dec 2009
 
HANOI — Vietnam, the world's second-biggest rice exporter, said
Wednesday it needs help to safeguard the world's food supply from the
consequences of global warming.
 
"The rice bowl of Vietnam will be severely affected" without action,
Nguyen Khac Hieu, deputy director general of the government's climate
change agency, told reporters before key global climate talks next
week in Copenhagen.
 
"It's not only for Vietnam's sake but also for the world's food
safety," said Hieu, calling for help to enable the country to adapt.
 
He will be part of Vietnam's delegation at the December 7-18
conference tasked with framing a new deal for tackling global warming
and its impact beyond 2012, when existing commitments under the Kyoto
Protocol expire.
 
Vietnam is planning for a one-metre (3.3 feet) rise in sea levels by
2100, which would inundate about 31,000 square kilometres (12,400
square miles) of land -- an area about the size of Belgium -- unless
dykes and drainage systems are strengthened, says a United Nations
discussion paper on climate change in Vietnam, presented at a meeting
on Wednesday.
 
"The inundation threat is greatest in the Mekong Delta," the country's
main rice production and export area, the paper said.
 
Many billions of dollars will be needed for Vietnam to address sea
level rise and other climate change effects, the paper said, adding
that the funding cannot only come from aid.
 
Public finance would also have to be made available, but the first
step should be large investments in studies and designs over the
coming decades, the paper said.
 
"The scale and time-span of these projects is unprecedented," it
added.
 
Mobilising funds to help developing countries shore up defences
against climate change, and to switch to an economy with low emissions
of damaging greenhouse gases, will be one of the key issues in
Copenhagen.


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