Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed with the Construction Ministry's proposals to expand the flood shelter pilot model across the northern central and central coastal regions.

Dung expressed his approval at a conference in the south-central province of Phu Yen yesterday, April 8, to review the implementation of a programme to help poor families in the two regions tackle floods.

The programme, which was implemented under the Prime Minister's Decision No 716/QD-TTg issued on June 14, 2012, targets 700 poor households in 14 flood-prone communes in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Phu Yen provinces.

Read more: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/government/70999/pm-agrees-to-expand-su...

Last month, China was granted US$95 million to reduce its production of hydro-chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), substances that are used primarily for cooling, refrigeration, and the manufacture of foam products. The funding comes from the Multilateral Fund (MLF) of the Montreal Protocol, because HCFCs deplete the ozone layer and are controlled under the Protocol. With access to these funds, between now and 2015 China will reduce its production of HCFCs by 10%, or 47,000 metric tons from 2010 levels, allowing it to meet the first reduction targets set by the Protocol.

Read more: http://blogs.worldbank.org/climatechange/china-phase-out-ozone-damaging-...

Adaptation is a key feature of sustainable social-ecological systems, as well as a recent and increasing focus of research and policy regarding responses to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. This article examines the meaning of adaptation and its relationship to the concepts of resilience, vulnerability and sustainability. It illustrates that, in many cases, societies ‘manipulate’ their social-ecological contexts rather than adapt to them.

Read more: https://apmen.iom.int/en/research-database/item/113-adaptation-or-manipu...

While the Song Bung 4 Hydropower project disrupted the lifestyle of the Co Tu ethnic group in central Viet Nam, it also became an opportunity for its members, especially women and children, to gain better education, health care, and improve their income opportunities. Their active participation in the resettlement process was key to the successful completion of a project that helped them design and build their future.

Read more: http://www.adb.org/features/viet-nams-co-tu-people-find-new-voice-throug...

European funding to help poor countries adapt to a changing climate is dropping remarkably at a time when it needs to be scaled up in line with UN commitments and people are dealing with increasing impacts of extreme weather events.

As part of an assessment that shows significant cuts in development aid to poor nations, the OECD has just revealed that funding for programs mainly focused on helping developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change fell globally from $3.1 billion in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2011. Although the OECD has not yet released climate finance figures for 2012, research by Oxfam suggests that levels of public climate finance did not improve last year.

Read more: http://oxfameu.blogactiv.eu/2013/04/08/staggering-55-cut-to-eu-funding-f...

Floods are among the most common causes of disasters in cities. Many cities are built on rivers or on low-elevation sites on coasts so they’re vulnerable to flooding. As cities expand, so the increased building further limits natural drainage and can increase flood risks each time it rains heavily.

In the last year, the list of cities where serious floods and loss of life has occurred include Jakarta, Chittagong, Manila, Beijing, Krymsk, Buenos Aires, various cities in Nigeria, New York and other cities in the US, and the Caribbean which was hit by hurricane Sandy in October 2012. In 2011 floods in Thailand devastated Bangkok and many other Thai cities (and rural areas).

Read more: http://www.iied.org/how-does-changing-climate-impact-urban-poverty

A top-level United Nations conference has, for the first time, laid the foundations for practical and proactive national drought policies to increase resilience to the world’s most destructive natural hazard, which is being aggravated by climate change.

The High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy marked the first globally-coordinated attempt to move towards science-based drought disaster risk reduction and break away from piecemeal and costly crisis-response, which often comes too late to avert death, displacement and destruction.

Read more: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/172030/icode/

In his village near Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nazeer Butt, 40, points to his ruined house on a steep mountainside.

“Three outer walls caved in and the roof was damaged when a torrent raced down the hill and hit it last month,” Butt told IRIN.

Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97606/Building-flash-flood-resilience-in-...

The European commission on Wednesday called for merging the fight against poverty and environmental protection into a single framework for the future, casting itself as the "role model" for the world.

The commission's Decent Life for All by 2030 (pdf) communication outlines proposed negotiating positions on the successor to the UN millennium development goals (MDGs), the eight targets agreed in 2000 – with many likely to miss their 2015 target.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/27/eu-role-model-e...

The United Nations has set two huge energy-related goals for the coming century. The first is to bring electricity to the 1.3 billion people who still don’t have it. The second is to curtail fossil fuel use and keep global warming below 2°C.

Those are daunting goals. They’re also in somewhat awkward tension with each other. The first requires increasing the amount of energy the world uses, including fossil fuels. The second requires harnessing cleaner power sources, using energy more efficiently, and even conserving power. So is it possible to do both at once?

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/10/can-we-tackle...