It is now widely accepted that the climate is changing, which is predicted to have significant impacts on the environment, lives and livelihoods worldwide. Vietnam is one of the countries that will be most severely affected by climate change. Rural people in Vietnam are already feeling the impacts of climate change, and the situation is expected to intensify in the coming years.

With a coastline that stretches more than 3,000km, Vietnam is predicted to be badly affected by rising sea levels. The impacts of climate change can be seen in various sectors across Vietnam; with agriculture, land and water resources being the most seriously affected. Due to their vulnerability, climate change will impact most heavily on poor farmers, women, and disadvantaged people.

Much of the focus of climate change work in Vietnam has been on coastal and southern delta regions, where people will be affected by rising sea levels. However, northern mountainous areas, where many of SRD's projects focus, also stand to be negatively impacted by changes in climate. The northern mountainous areas are at particular risk from floods, droughts, landslides and soil erosion, and higher risk of natural disasters and extreme weather events. The central coastal areas, where SRD also implements climate change projects, are at particular risk of flash floods, tropical cyclones and sea level rises. 

Climate change poses a great threat to progress of development work in Vietnam. People and communities that are already vulnerable will be more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For example, poor, rural ethnic minorities who are closely dependent on agriculture for livelihoods will be at risk if crops fail due to unpredictable climate and scarce water resources. Climate change is not as issue that stands alone, but is closely linked to clean water, irrigation, sanitation, land management, market development and poverty reduction.

SRD has a strong commitment to working with poor, rural communities to increase climate change resilience and the ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change. We have been focusing many of our interventions in the last few years in raising awareness and building capacity among the civil-society community on climate change. SRD has also invested in seeking opportunities to support community based initiatives to strengthen and promote community climate resilience actions. This has been done through both integrating climate change in our existing projects and implementing new projects with specific focus on climate change response.   

SRD is one of the leading civil society organizations in the climate change sector in Vietnam. We are a founding member and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Vietnamese NGO Climate Change Network (VNGO&CC), and a core group member of the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG). As a key member of these organizations, SRD collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, and is closely involved in policy advocacy at the local, national and global level. SRD has made great efforts to influence policy makers and donors by contributing practical comments at different domestic and international forums and networks including the UNFCCC's Meetings and Conference of Parties, the Asian-Pacific Forum on Climate Change Adaptation and the Asian-Pacific REDD Network. 

To date, SRD has implemented a range of climate change projects, focusing on increasing people's capacity to adapt to climate change, developing skills in community based disaster risk management, supporting development of livelihoods which respond effectively to climatic changes and building capacity in land use and irrigation management in the context of climate change.

SRD also explores opportunities for grassroots communities and small-scale farmers to contribute to climate change mitigation.  Though fossil fuel consumption is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture accounts for a surprisingly large share of these planet-warming gases, most notably the gas methane. Through its work on SRI (the System of Rice Intensification), SRD is working with rice farmers to significantly reduce their methane emissions while at the same time increasing incomes and plant resilience, and reducing the need for scarce irrigation water.

In addition to our climate change specific projects, SRD also mainstreams climate change into all of our projects. SRD employees, especially program officers, have been trained in climate change, and a guideline has been developed to assist them to consider climate change considerations in their projects. In addition to a strong climate change team, SRD has a Climate Change Focal Person to assist staff with mainstreaming climate change into livelihood projects effectively.