Viet Nam's proactive efforts to fight climate change and ensure sustainable development cannot be effective without the strong support of the international community and academia in particular, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said while extending his welcome to over 100 world leading environmental scientists yesterday in Ha Noi.

Nhan's speech marked the opening of a five-day conference organised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which will end on Thursday. This conference is part of a series of IPCC activities aimed at compiling a special report on managing the risks inherent in natural disasters, while promoting adaptive measures to cope with climate change, slated to be completed in 2013.

As Viet Nam has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, Nhan said the Government and people of Viet Nam have proactively carried out several measures tojoin the international community in response to climate change. These include the development and implementation of the National Target Programme for Climate Change Responses, the development of climate change and rising sea level scenarios for Viet Nam until 2100, following IPCC warnings and recommendations, and the development of the programme for efficient use of energy, improved energy use efficiency, utilisation of renewable energy, and numerous projects for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

According to Nhan, as the Chair of ASEAN and the most vulnerable region to the effects of climate change, Viet Nam has put this issue as top priority in its agenda and initiated the founding of the East Asia Forum on Climate Change.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Norwegian Ambassador to Viet Nam Stale Risa said: "Norway would like to commend the Vietnamese Government for putting climate change at the forefront of its national agenda and for their crucial work in dealing with natural disasters and ensuring that disaster risk reduction is a national priority".

Earlier IPCC reports have shown that countries around the world need to not only focus on cutting greenhouse emissions but also on adapting to climate change and implementing disaster risk reduction. According to Risa, the IPCC's special report can provide important knowledge about how to handle and manage the increasing number of extreme weather events in order to advance adaptions to climate change.

Professor Mai Trong Nhuan, president of the Ha Noi National University, one of the IPCC lead authors, said the IPCC lead authors' meeting was an excellent venue for scientists from different countries and regions to exchange their scientific knowledge and results with policymakers from IPCC member countries.

Established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme, the IPCC now has members from 194 countries. Its aim is to provide a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences. — VNS