Cambodia begins the new year as the first nation in Southeast Asia to publish a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The roadmap, known officially as a “Long-term strategy for Carbon Neutrality (LTS4CN)” was submitted to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Source: Timberbiz
This fulfilled a promise by Prime Minister Hun Sento to present such a plan by the end of 2021 and it followed on the heels of his government’s pledge, at COP26 Glasgow last November, to reduce Cambodia’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40% of median levels by 2030.
“Implementation of the carbon neutrality strategy in Cambodia is expected to increase our nation’s GDP by nearly 3% and to create some 449,000 jobs by 2050” says Say Samal, Minister of the Environment for Cambodia .
“Forestry sector reforms, decarbonization of transport systems and the promotion of low-carbon agricultural and goods production processes will lead the way to a greener economy and more sustainable prosperity for all”.
Minister Samal lauds the efforts of his government, the Ministry of the Environment, and those of Cambodia’s National Council for Sustainable Development for committing to go beyond putting pen to paper.
Cambodia’s “Long-term strategy for Carbon Neutrality (LTS4CN)” is designed to be a synergistic approach that seeks to balance economic growth and social justice with greenhouse gas reductions and climate resilience.
The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance program (funded by the European Union, Sweden , and the United Nations Development Program), the United Kingdom , the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Global Green Growth Institute and the Agence Franaise de Developement have contributed their extensive expertise to the preparation of this strategy. We are most grateful for their input, and we welcome their assistance in the coming years.
Cambodia has a 400 megawatt foothold in solar energy development. The country is steering away from coal-fired power generation and hydro power development on the Mekong River has been ruled out.
“We are seeing ‘REDD’ when it comes to our forestry resources. REDD, as in ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation in Developing countries’ – a program sponsored by the United Nations,” said Mr Samal.
“Cambodia is committed to reducing deforestation by half by the year 2030 and to reaching zero emissions in its forestry sector by 2040.”
