Climate change threatening millions in Vietnam

Climate change could destroy progress in Vietnam says Oxfam

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Thursday, 20, Nov 2008 10:05

Climate change is threatening to drag millions back into poverty in Vietnam according to Oxfam.

It says rising sea-levels, more intense typhoons, higher temperatures and increased flooding and drought are all combining to threaten the livelihoods of Vietnamese people.

Oxfam says Vietnam has led the way to meeting the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals by 2015 but now the country, identified as among the ten most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, is set to see this success reversed unless urgent global action is taken.

The news comes ten days before the UN climate change negotiations convene at Poznan, where Oxfam is calling for richer nations to do more to cut global emissions by at least 80 per cent, and committing to funding so that poor communities like those in Vietnam can adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.

Steve Price-Thomas, Oxfam's country director in Vietnam said: "Vietnam has been one of the most successful countries in lifting people away from the clutches of poverty but unless urgent global action is taken, climate change is set to push them back. Rising sea-levels, torrential rain and flooding, land salinisation and drought are already devastating people's lives and climate models show that Vietnam can expect much worse."