WB offers million in climate change, green growth support to Vietnam

Mekong countries share land governance experience Increasing security of land rights and transparency of land governance would contribute to government accountability, reduce costs ...

A woman sits on a land plot having dried up due to a shortage of water in this picture taken in My Hung Commune, Thanh Phu District, Ben Tre Province.

This is the first in a series of three credits that will support climate change and green growth policy actions under the Vietnamese government’s Support Program to Respond to Climate Change, led by the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the WB said Friday on its website.

The credit will fund the implementation of policies to improve integrated coastal zone planning and management, public investments related to climate change and green growth, protection of water resources and greater water use efficiency, as well as coastal forest development, according to the WB.

It also supports policies in transportation and industrial production that will improve air quality, and in energy efficiency and renewables that will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the WB added.

Such policy actions will help Vietnam prepare to implement commitments made ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the WB said on its website.

Funding for the operation comes from the International Development Association of the World Bank, which lends money on concessional terms for the world’s poorest countries.

“Fostering climate change adaptation and mitigation and enhancing resilience is important to Vietnam and the sustainability of its development,” Achim Fock, acting country director for the World Bank in Vietnam, said.

He also emphasized that supporting the agenda in the country is the WB’s global effort to respond to climate change, “a priority at the World Bank,” the acting country director noted.