From 31 October to 12 November 2021, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference is meeting in Glasgow/United Kingdom under the heading UNITING THE WORLD TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE.

To use such great words is not surprising when one considers the serious dangers for the future of the earth – the future of life on the earth. A document of the Asia Development Bank describes the objective of COP26 as follows:

“COP26 is designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Its goals are to: secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach, adapt to protect communities and natural habitats, mobilize finance, and work together to deliver. It aims to bring countries together to agree on a comprehensive, ambitious and balanced outcome that takes forward coordinated climate action and resolves key issues related to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement (the Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change; it was adopted by 196 Parties at COP21 in Paris in 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016). At COP26, delegates will be aiming to finalize the ‘Paris Rulebook’ (the ‘Paris Rulebook’ provides details on how the Paris Agreement pledges can be met, but several of the issues have yet to be agreed upon), and the rules needed to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.”

All this affects our future. But what is the challenge for Cambodia?

Let us first look back at COP21 in 2015. The Phnom Penh Post had reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen had urged “cooperation on climate problems.” And the acknowledged importance was shown by Cambodia being represented at the Paris meeting by King Sihamoni who “delivered an impassioned plea for a legally binding international climate change treaty” in his six-and-a-half minutes address to the representatives of “195 nations and the world’s civil society.”

This time, the Cambodian government will be represented at COP26 by Environment Minister Say Samal and some other government VIPs. I am not sure if there will also be representatives of Civil Society from Cambodia. In the blog in 2015, I had referred to the following issues:

A recent UN study places the Kingdom among the top 10 countries most affected by weather-related disasters.

• “As the representative of a developing country,” King Sihamoni called upon fairness in the negotiations, stressing the growing costs for the Kingdom “despite Cambodia’s very small share in greenhouse gas emissions,” echoing the position staked out by the Kingdom’s civil society.
• The King went on to emphasize Cambodia’s need for a technology transfer agreement as well as adaptation and mitigation financing in order to meet its emissions targets.
• “These initial contributions will not maintain global warming below the threshold of 2° C, breaking this deadlock is our responsibility as leaders,” he said, concluding with a challenge to negotiators to reach an agreement. “Let us deliver today the bold leadership that our people and future generations legitimately expect.”
• Reacting to the address, the Prey Lang Community Network – which has sent two delegates to Paris, where it is set to receive the UNDP’s Equator Prize – applauded the King’s sentiment and inclusion of forest protection on the agenda, writing that addressing climate change “is the responsibility of each and every one of us.”

The call to the richer countries, which are also those that contribute most to the climate change, was heard – these countries committed to provide US$100 billion annually to support climate change prevention. It is said by the OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – that actually around US$80 billion were really delivered. So these efforts are continuing and they are important.

A the same time, in many countries, floods and droughts became more frequent. Cambodia had droughts which led to power shortages in 2019, severe flooding in 2020. The Ministry of Environment estimated that climate change could reduce the growth of the Cambodia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 10% by the year 2050.

To reach the goal of zero carbon emissions for the world by the year 2050 would require to reduce emissions by changing to cleaner technologies, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and absorbing emissions by increasing forests, not deforestation.

There are many ways to work towards these goals – but that needs the broad will of political leaders, and the understanding and cooperation by the people.

For Cambodia, this means to encourage wide efforts to change habits and plans, and to cooperate towards serious carbon emission reductions, even as the origins of the global problems are quite different by countries: China produces 26% of current global greenhouse gas emissions, the USA 13%, the European Union 8% and Cambodia only 0.02%.

For Cambodia, “carbon markets” may become highly important:

“In a carbon trade, one party reduces carbon emissions and another party buys the emission reduction credits. The latter transfers money to the first and in exchange, it can count the emission reduction towards its own targets.

“Sweden has committed to net zero emissions by 2045. COP26 is meant to agree on the final rules for carbon trading between countries, so that countries like Sweden can achieve their targets by financing additional emission reductions in other countries. The Cambodian Ministry of Environment has been working with Sweden and Global Green Growth Institute to prepare for the first trades under the Paris Agreement.

“As such, Cambodia may be one of the first countries in the world to pilot carbon trading under the Paris Agreement. This will create a vast new source of finance to incentivize emission reductions. The Prime Minister has already flagged its importance for Cambodia. We saw that climate finance is limited. Carbon finance, on the contrary, has no limits: keep reducing emissions and you can keep trading credits.

“This illustrates a shift in the political discourse on climate change in Cambodia. To quote the Prime Minister “Dealing effectively with the problems caused by climate change will contribute significantly to sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development in the future.”

“Increasingly, climate commitments are not approached as a burden, but as an opportunity. A chance to leverage Cambodia’s position as a small emitter to trade carbon credits. A chance to boost the recovery of the tourism sector through green projects like the introduction of electric buses in Siem Reap being pushed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. A chance to re-think costly power generation plans. Early October, the government announced it would discontinue the development of additional coal-fired power projects. Setting targets is easy. What we’re seeing of late in Cambodia, is action.”