Coping with climate change to cost city $1 bln
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Ho Chi Minh City needs more than VND20 trillion (US$1.05 billion) by 2015 to cope with the impacts of climatic change, but authorities have yet to draft action plans.
Districts with incomplete infrastructure, like 12, Can Gio, Hoc Mon, and Binh Chanh, will be the worst affected, the HCM City Climate Change Steering Board said.
The economic and social stability of these areas in future will depend on relocating people who lose their lands due to the rising sea levels.
Industrial parks (IPs) located in low-lying areas, especially those with poor infrastructure, will also suffer from the expected flooding.
According to experts, if the sea level rises by a meter, 16 IPs will be deeply submerged.
By far, the worst affected sector will be agriculture, the city Natural Resources and Environment Department said.
However, it is hard to measure how much agricultural production will be affected since an appropriate model for assessment of climate change impacts is not available, it said.
The city has 10 rural districts that generate a large number of agricultural jobs and supply vegetables to the city. So measures must be taken to mitigate climate change impacts here, the experts said.
Foreign funding
Nguyen Trung Viet, head of the Board’s expert group, said the funds required to combat the effects of climate change will be mobilized from four sources: 50 percent from aid and loans from international organizations, 30 percent from the government, and 10 percent each from the city budget and businesses.
The Dutch government has already pledged €6 million (US$7.9 million).
Contributions from businesses will be available only when entrepreneurs discover the projects have practical benefits to their business, Viet admitted.
The Board said, however, the city has yet to identify which areas or sectors are most vulnerable to climate change since the criteria has not been set for such identification.
Besides, the city lacks a database based on which climate change mitigation projects can be set up effectively, Viet said.
Most climate projects in the city are just for research or study purpose and have not been developed into feasible, practical action plans, he added.
