EU helps Mekong River Commission tackle climate change

The Vientiane Times: The European Union (EU) yesterday committed 4.95 million euros (over US$6 million) to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to boost its efforts to respond to the region's climate change challenges. Representatives of the EU and the MRC signed the funding agreement in Luang Prabang yesterday on the sidelines of the 19th Mekong River Commission Council meeting.

...According to a media release from the MRC, the funding supports the Climate Change Adaption Initiative until 2015. It supports the MRC programme to assess the effects of change climate and integrate adaption planning at the regional, national and community levels.

The funding is a part of the Global Climate Change Alliance – an EU initiative to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with the nations most affected by climate change. “The support of the EU underscores the importance of climate change in the development of the lower Mekong Basin. Adaption planning can better prepare the region for the challenges ahead, ensuring food security and alleviating poverty reduction,” MRC Chief Executive Officer Mr Hans Guttman said at the signing ceremony.

Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events such as typhoons are increasing in frequency, leading to droughts and floods that destroy homes, infrastructure, livestock and crops. A predicted rise in sea level will increase salinity and floods in the Mekong Delta, causing damage to crops in the most productive area of the basin....

The Mekong River at Luang Prabang, Laos, shot by Allie Caulfield, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Asia Development Bank grants $251 million in loans to Viet Nam

VietnamNet: Nguyen Van Binh, Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam and Tomoyuki Kimura, Country Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Viet Nam, yesterday signed three loan agreements totalling US$251 million in Ha Noi. The loans are aimed at helping Viet Nam streng-then education quality, ensuring a reliable electricity supply and improving flood and drought management and mitigation.

"Viet Nam's future growth will depend on a labour force skilled enough to meet the needs of the job market and a reliable electricity supply to meet rapidly growing energy demands," said Kumara. "It also needs funds to mitigate risks posed by floods and droughts."

A $90 million con-cessional loan from the ADB's Asian Development Fund for the Second Upper Secondary Education Development Project will help improve the readiness of upper secondary school graduates for tertiary and vocational career development. This will be achieved by enhancing the quality of upper-secondary education to meet international standards, improving access to upper-secondary education for disadvantaged groups, including girls and ethnic students, and strengthening the management of upper-secondary education.

Another $110.19 million loan represents the second tranche of a $730 million power transmission investment programme to Viet Nam that the ADB approved in December 2011. The loan partially supports the implementation of the seventh National Power Development Master Plan to ensure supply to industrial, commercial and residential consumers....

Migration not always a way to adapt

IRIN: As the impact of climate change unfolds, many have predicted forbidding scenarios of millions of impoverished people flooding into often affluent countries. Yet a ground-breaking study released on 28 November reveals a more nuanced relationship between climate variability and migration, which could provide insight into how events might transpire in the coming years.

The study, carried out by Care International and the UN University (UNU) in eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, reveals that in nearly all instances where rains have become too scarce for farming, people have migrated - but within the national borders.

The project also considered possible future scenarios in Tanzania, where even scarcer rains over the next 25 years were projected to double migration from vulnerable households.  The project’s researchers hope their findings will inform the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks, currently taking place in Doha, by persuading participants to speed up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and develop effective policies to adapt to rising temperatures.

The three-year research project, Where the rain falls: climate change, hunger and human mobility, covered over 1,300 households and 2,000 individuals in Bangladesh, India, Ghana, Guatemala, Peru, Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam. 

...It is one of the first empirical efforts to explore how poor households use migration as a risk management strategy to deal with climate stressors and food insecurity. The study also offers insight into how households adjust their behaviour in the face of these changes, which could inform how policymakers support rural communities....

Young people in Guatemala in 1980, shot by Infrogmation, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

$1.24 billion needed to rescue Saigon from flooding

Vietnam Net Bridge: By 2070, there will be nearly 10,000 hectares, 257,000 people, 1,494 km of roads and many production facilities, industrial parks being flooded due to high tides and the sea level rise, according to a workshop assessing the risk of climate change on human health in HCM City on November 13.

At this workshop, experts said that climate change has made the appearance of diseases affecting human health. They also demonstrated that climate change affects flooding, especially in big cities like Ho Chi Minh City.  In particular, Mr. Bui Chi Nam, from the Southern Institute of Hydrometeorology and Environment showed a flooding script in Ho Chi Minh City to 2070 (excluding the impact of rain).

Nam said that flooding in Ho Chi Minh City is caused by many effects, including rain, high tides plus the rise of upstream water. Skipping the rain factor, only high tides and the sea level rise have affected the city's flooding. He said that by 2070, there will be nearly 10,000 hectares in the city to be flooded, especially in the districts of Can Gio, Nha Be, Binh Chanh, Thu Duc and District 12.

Based on research data, Nam proved that by 2070, flooding caused by high tides and sea level rise under the impact of climate change will seriously affect land use planning, water resources, infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, industrial areas and people in HCM City....

The Saigon River winding through Ho Chi Minh City, shot by nft, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licencse