Climate change has become a great concern in the world, a hot topic on social-economic forums. It is warned that Vietnam will be among the countries that suffer the most from climate change.

However, when Vietnam is trying to develop industry and service, it is very difficult to turn restriction of exhaust gas to protect the environment and confront climate change into a voluntary campaign.

On the occasion of the upcoming Earth Hour, Vietnamese enterprises, NGOs and government agencies met to call for the action against climate change.

At the meeting, attendants once again raised the threats posed by climate change to Vietnam. Over the past 50 years, average temperature has risen by 0.7 degree Celsius and the sea by about 20cm in Vietnam. It was estimated that a 1m rise in sea level would affect 10 percent of the country’s population, reduce its GDP growth rate by 10 percent and submerge about 40,000 km2 of coastal plain per year. Climate change would also cause extreme weather conditions such as unseasonable hurricanes and increasingly severe floods and droughts.

According to scripts developed by the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the Mekong River Delta and other plains in Vietnam will face many problems. Annually, from January to April, these regions will suffer from dry and hot weather, a shortage of water, northeast wind, the encroachment of salt water, early droughts, thunder and lightning. From May to June, the regions will be hit by drought, early floods in July and August, landslides, rain, floods and flood-tides in September and October, storms and cold weather in November and December.

Nguyen Van Phuoc, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, told over 200 businesses attending the “Green Luncheon” at HCM City’s Windsor Plaza on March 2: “We should see environment as a friend. Besides practical actions like cutting down exhaust gas, saving energy, businesses should call for its staff to live “green” by using bicycles and green and clean energies to prevent pollution”.

Phuoc added that Vietnam has impressed the world by its fast development and integration. The country would get international friends’ more sympathy if it highlights the spirit of protecting the earth.

“To have sustainable growth, economic growth must go with protecting the environment. This requires the participation and great responsibility from businesses,” said HCM City’s vice chairman Le Minh Tri.

Yet, many Vietnamese firms have committed in environmental scandals, which both harmed the environment and their prestige at home and abroad.

Cao Tien Vi, chairman of the HCM City Young Businessman Association, said: “It is time to change the thinking of businesses. It is unacceptable to simple think that if you pay, you have the right to use energy resources freely because future generations will have to suffer from our waste of resources today”.

Vi said that enterprises don’t have to big things, just launching “green living” campaigns within their businesses, through which calling staff to practice thrift in using electricity, water, etc.

All participating firms of the “Green Luncheon” agreed to join the Earth Hour 2010, which will fall on March 27.

Businesses join hands for Earth Hour

This is the second year Vietnam joining the Earth Hour campaign, organized by the WWF. Every last Saturday of March, the WWF calls for all families and businesses in the world to turn off all unnecessary electric equipment within one hour for the earth to “rest” after a whole year suffering from exhaust gas.

Launched by the WWF in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes made the simple decision to switch off their lights for one hour, the campaign attracted over 1 billion people of 4013 cities in 88 countries last year. Six Vietnamese cities - Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, and HCM City – also participated in the event.

However, many Vietnamese people misunderstood the meaning of this campaign. They thought that this was the time of power cut and told each other to do all jobs that need electricity before the Earth Hour. They didn’t know that this is a call for voluntary action. Though during the Earth Hour 2009, Vietnam saved 140,000 kWh of electricity, equivalent to 132 million dong, but after that day, the people quickly forgot their “one green hour”.

The Earth Hour accounts for only one our in 8760 hours of a year but it is important that through the Earth Hour, people is aware of saving energy to reduce aftermaths of climate change.

For that reason, the Earth Hour 2010 has been warmly supported by government agencies, the media and the community of businesses in Vietnam. After the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has committed to join and instructed its subsidiaries to participate in this campaign.

Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang asked local Departments of Industry and Trade to take action to raise the awareness of their staff about the Earth Hour.

VinaGame said to support this campaign by promoting the event via Zing, a very popular website among Vietnamese teens. Honda Vietnam committed to turn off light during the Earth Hour 2010 and cut down electricity consumption at its factories as well as to manufacture environmentaly friendly vehicles.

Over 200 companies participating in the “Green Luncheon” have had a more thorough look for future activities to partly contribute to building a green-clean environment.

Prof. Ha Ton Vinh, who has lived overseas for over 50 years and taught about responsibility of businesses at universities, summed up: “Businesses today not oly do business, earn profit and pay taxes but also have to show their role and morality in social issues. Climate change is a concern that businesses need to join hands with governments to solve it”.

VietNamNet/DNSGCT