Initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the third annual Earth Hour will last from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on March 28.

“Vietnam is one of the top five countries in the world most at risk from a forecasted rise in sea level, which is an impact of global warming,” said Ho Thanh Lan of WWF Vietnam in Hanoi.

“Earth Hour aims to educate the global community about the threat of climate change and how easy it is for individuals and businesses to make small changes to the way they live and operate,” she said.

“Those small changes will make a big difference.”

Lan said WWF Vietnam would work to get local organizations and households involved through volunteer teams set to visit offices and schools to explain the campaign and spread awareness.

She said the agency would also ask for help from local authorities in spreading the word.

The event will be advertised on banners along city streets two weeks beforehand, said Lan.

Millions of people in some 1,000 cities across the globe are expected to turn off their lights and electric appliances for Earth Hour this year, according to the event’s website.

“The effects of climate change caused by carbon emissions pose the greatest threat to life on Earth and only by changing the world’s collective attitude towards the use of carbon-emitting energy sources can we alleviate this threat,” said a statement on the Earth Hour website www.earthhour.com.

Earth Hour 2009 hopes to deliver a global mandate for environmental reform to world leaders attending the UN Conference for Climate Change in Copenhagen in December to strike up a new global climate deal to usurp Kyoto, said the website.

The first Earth Hour in Sydney on March 31, 2007 saw over two million people and two thousand businesses across the city turn off their lights and appliances for one hour.

In 2008, around 50 million people across 35 countries turned off their lights in support of Earth Hour, the website said.

Most vulnerable

A World Bank report in 2007 put Vietnam atop the list of countries most vulnerable to impacts of climate change.

The United Nation’s Human Development Report 2007/2008 said Vietnam is one of the top two countries in the world most at risk from a one-meter rise in sea level by 2100 and the most at risk in East Asia.

It is estimated that for the past 50 years, average temperatures in Vietnam have risen by 0.7 degrees and could rise by another 3 degrees by 2100, Viet Nam News reported on February 3.

A one-meter rise in the sea level would affect approximately 5 percent of Vietnam’s land area, 11 percent of the population and 7 percent of agriculture, while reducing the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 10 percent, said the Viet Nam News report.

Recently, WWF reported climate change would increase flooding and cause water shortages along the coast of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region – including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan Province – over the next two decades.

The WWF study, Assessing the Implications of Climate Change at the Provincial Level in Ca Mau of Vietnam and Krabi of Thailand, also emphasized the urgent need for regional governments to tackle the impending effects of climate change.

The southernmost province faces the threat of widespread flooding and increased salinity in its freshwater due to storms and rising sea levels over the next 25 years.

Early last month, Vietnam launched the National Target Program on Climate Change to protect the nation from the effects of climate change.

The VND1.96 trillion (US$112.44 million) program will fund technology development and increase the capacity of local environmental agencies by training more environmental specialists.

Thanh Nien News - February 12, 2009