A recent conference on high resolution weather forecast in Hanoi has warned Vietnam is facing higher temperatures, lower summer rainfall totals, stronger storms, and rising sea levels from now until 2050.
The conference was jointly organised by the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment, the University of Natural Sciences , and the Australian Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Experts predict that temperatures in northern Vietnam will rise by around 0.8–3.4 degrees Celsius by 2050 and continue upwards during the late 21 st century. The surging frequency of hotter days is bound to affect agricultural production.
Summer rainfall will decline in most areas. However, the central region could buck this trend with summer rainfalls increasing instead.
East Sea storms may become rarer but more intense, threatening flash flooding and landslides in vulnerable northern mountainous, central and central highland provinces.
The high resolution forecasts suggest sea level rises of 100mm–400mm along the entire Vietnamese coast until the end of the 21st century, negatively impacting marine biology and coastal communities.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha reiterated the unpredictability of climate change and its potential to create a variety of dangerous extreme weather events.
To improve Vietnam ’s understanding of climate change’s possible outcomes, Ha urged relevant agencies to work together on devising worst-case scenario models and responses by 2015. He expressed his hope that international experts will help Vietnam cope with climate change’s challenges.