(Ho Chi Minh City) On 24 August 2012, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Office of the Steering Committee for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation of HCMC and United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) in collaboration with Korean Environment Institute (KEI) and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) organized the workshop "Capacity Building to Develop Climate Change Response towards Green Growth". Distinguished guests attending the workshop are officials of related departments, boards and branches, representatives of districts and Korean experts on climate change response and green growth.

Vietnam is now one of the most vulnerable countries affected by climate change. According to the latest climate change scenario, it is estimated that by 2100 the average temperature in Vietnam will increase by 2-3 °C, and sea level will rise another 57 to 73 cm on average. Because of sea level rise, people living within 100 km from a coast will be influenced heavily by climate change.

While green growth is a development model to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts, to improve the quality of growth and change the structure of production and consumption towards sustainability. This is the model which has been applied and pursued by many developed countries in the world.

Dr. Nguyen Quang, Habitat Programme Manager of UN-Habitat stated that "Ho Chi Minh City and Danang are the two centrally-controlled municipalities having high urbanization rate and facing challenges of urbanization. Meanwhile, climate change is likely to exacerbate these challenges. Moreover, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City are dynamic and active in responding to climate change. Therefore, we organize a pre-two-day training course and this workshop for related officials to build capacity on climate change and green growth, as well as providing practical and useful tools because these key officials work directly in urban development, environmental protection and climate change adaptation. Danang and Ho Chi Minh City are the flagship cities, so the experience gained from them will be shared with other cities across the country".

South Korea is one of the leading countries in green-growth and low-carbon socio-economic development. Innovating and sound ideas of economic development were applied, which led the country to become a developed one in the last few decades.

Dr. Shim Changsub from Korean Environment Institute said, "We want to share with you the experience of success in national planning for climate change adaptation as well as the concerns we encountered in the implementation process of the plan. Through this workshop, I hope to learn from Vietnam's experiences in general Ho Chi Minh City's in particular in terms of climate change response which can be applied in my country. I also hope that we will have other chances to discuss and learn from each other."

The training course and workshop are first critical steps of the 5-year project that UN-Habitat is carrying out with Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang on "Strengthening Multi-Sectoral Planning Strategies and Institutional Arrangement for Balanced Human, Economic and Sustainable Development".