PM Dung said that Vietnam welcomes and highly values important initiatives on protecting the earth’s climate system and wished that participating countries would reach international agreements on handling climate change at the conference attended by 130 world leaders.

He affirmed Vietnam’s commitment to responding to climate change and praised the international community’s assistance to the country, saying Vietnam is looking forward to closer cooperation to effectively tackle climate change and rising sea levels.

PM Dung said that Vietnam, which has a long coastline, is among a few countries that are heavily affected by climate change, but are not a major emitter of green house gas. 

He stressed that if sea levels rise by one metre, 38 percent of the country’s deltas and coastal areas will be submerged, causing a serious impact on the life, society and food security of Vietnam as well as the world.

Mr Dung told the conference that many economic zones and population areas of Vietnam are located in coastal areas and the Red river and Mekong deltas. Meanwhile, the country has provided food for not only its 86 million people, but also millions of people in the world as it supplies one fifth of the world’s total rice export volume. 

In response to climate change, Vietnam has actively built and is implementing the National Target Programme for this, Mr Dung said.

The same day, PM Dung met with representatives of several international organizations participating in the conference.

(VNA-VOV News)