Cambodia launches national framework to address climate change

The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia recently announced that Cambodia's newly issued "Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan (2024-2033)" has formulated a national strategy to address climate change in the next 10 years. The plan plans to increase efforts to respond to climate change through inclusive and sustainable development measures to reduce carbon emissions, enhance resilience and improve climate governance to achieve the long-term goal of carbon neutrality.

In the past 10 years, Cambodia has achieved remarkable results in addressing climate change, including the formulation of a new version of the National Determined Contribution Reports (NDCs) and the establishment of a national climate change monitoring and evaluation system. Public expenditure on addressing climate change has also steadily increased. In December 2021, the Cambodian government submitted the "Carbon Neutrality Long-term Strategy" to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, promising to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Cambodia has become the first among ASEAN countries and the second among the least developed countries to make a carbon neutrality commitment.

Cambodia's Minister of Environment Insopalay recently stated that Cambodia submitted its first nationally determined contribution report to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015, promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 27%, and submitted an updated version in 2020, promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42% within five years. The updated nationally determined contribution report includes emission reduction measures and adaptation measures. The total funding requirement is estimated to be approximately US$7.8 billion, of which US$2 billion will be used for adaptation measures and US$5.8 billion will be used for emission reduction measures.

Nationally determined contribution is the core of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change. The Paris Agreement stipulates that each party submits nationally determined contribution targets to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change every five years, and requires emission reduction measures to achieve its phased goals.

After Hongmanai was elected as the new Prime Minister of Cambodia in August last year, the first phase of the "Five-Corners Strategy" issued by the new government took climate change as an important content, giving priority to "people, roads, water, electricity and technology" to maintain lasting peace, economic growth and sustainable social development, promote national progress and effectively respond to climate change.

In order to achieve the first-phase goals of the "Five-Corner Strategy" and its commitment to addressing climate change, the "Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan (2024-2033)" outlines Cambodia's strategic goals and direction of intelligent development in the next 10 years. The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia said that the new plan is based on an assessment of Cambodia's existing gaps in completing its nationally determined contribution goals and carbon neutrality and long-term strategies, focusing on emerging climate issues and the most vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, with key areas of focus including agriculture, water resources, forestry, fisheries and energy.

In order to formulate the plan, in February this year, the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia required all functional departments involved in committing nationally determined contribution goals to collect 2023 data and upload it to the nationally determined contribution and carbon neutrality long-term strategic tracking and monitoring system. The recently released 2023 data will become an important reference for Cambodia to address climate change. The system not only helps monitor the progress of the implementation of Cambodia's nationally determined contribution goals and carbon neutrality and long-term strategies, but also demonstrates the principles of accountability and transparency required by the Paris Agreement. The collected data will also be used to prepare the first biennial transparency report and nationally determined contribution inventory report, and lay the foundation for the formulation of the next round of nationally determined contribution goals.

In March this year, the Cambodia Climate Change Technology Working Group held a special seminar to introduce the outline and key strategic areas of the "Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan (2024-2033)" to member units and development partners to collect feedback and finally determine the plan. The Cambodian Ministry of Environment pointed out that the mission of the plan is to establish a national framework to reduce emissions, enhance resilience, improve climate governance, and ensure that Cambodia transforms into a green, low-carbon and climate-resilient society in the next 10 years. The strategic plan includes key priorities such as promoting the use of renewable energy, sustainable management of natural resources, and implementing climate-smart practices in various areas. Fourteen ministries and commissions in Cambodia have developed sectoral action plans based on the strategy. The Ministry of Environment of Cambodia will also promote the role of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance in providing capacity building, policy support and coordination assistance to the government to unite all parties to work together to achieve climate change commitments.

In June this year, the Cambodia government also promulgated the "Electric Vehicle Development Policy (2024-2030)" to plan the development path of the electric vehicle industry and serve Cambodia's long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. According to the plan, Cambodia will establish an electric vehicle ecosystem in phases, including attracting investment to establish an electric vehicle assembly plant, parts manufacturing plant and an electric vehicle charging station network in Cambodia. By 2030, Cambodia plans to increase the number of electric vehicles to 30,000, and the number of electric motorcycles and electric "toot vehicles" will increase to 720,000 and 20,000 respectively. When carbon neutrality is achieved in 2050, we will achieve the goals of electric motorcycles accounting for 70% of the total number of motorcycles, and electric vehicles and electric buses accounting for 40% of similar vehicles as promised in the "Carbon Neutralization Long-term Strategy".