WWF-Vietnam
and the German embassy today launched the Mekong Delta Business Forum to engage
the business sector in initiatives to respond to climate change in the Mekong
Delta.
WWF and the German embassy are encouraging
foreign and local corporates committed to reducing energy consumption and
achieving greater sustainability to join.
Forum participants shared their experiences of
environmental-friendly initiatives that support sustainability and reduce
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and together set out plans to establish more
concrete actions, with the help of climate change experts.
“Rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and
an altered flow in the Mekong are having negative impacts on the livelihoods of
18 million people living in the delta,” said Hoang Viet, project co-ordinator,
WWF-Vietnam.
“We must involve the business sector, one of
the key sectors contributing to climate change, in the fight to combat it. Our
goal is to enhance the private sector’s involvement in building climate
resilience and sustainability in the Mekong Delta,“ Viet said.
The Mekong is one of the most biodiverse river
systems in the world. More than 700 species of freshwater fish ply its waters,
including four of the 10 largest freshwater species and the biggest of them,
the endangered and endemic Mekong giant catfish.
The Mekong river also supports one of the
world's most productive inland fisheries, critical to the economies of the
Greater Mekong Sub-region countries, including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand, and Vietnam.
The business sector relies heavily on natural
resources and is often a major contributor of carbon emissions.
While the business sector’s climate change
initiatives in the Mekong are currently limited - as are exchanges and
synergies between the private sector, government, and civil society - WWF and
the German embassy are hopeful the new forum will help accelerate commitment
and action towards collective efforts to combat climate change.
"By introducing and funding the forum,
the German embassy wants to encourage the private sector to take up a leading
role in reducing the risks and costs of climate change," said Dr. Henning
Plate, German embassy sevelopment counsellor.
Corporates joining the new forum will be able
to take part in a series of educational activities such as a mangrove forest
planting and field trips to ecological hot spots and climate change prone areas
in the Mekong Delta. Corporates are also encouraged to explore and take part in
WWF’s current initiatives for adapting to and mitigating dangerous climate
change, such as Earth Hour, Green Office, Climate Savers, Climate Camp and the
Mekong Delta Conservation Forum.
Bich Ngoc | vir.com.vn
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