Cambodian climate forum’s closing note: act together or face disaster

Phnom Penh - A forum on climate change in Cambodia ended on Wednesday with an unambiguous reminder:  act together or face disaster from the global warming.

“Our action must be collective and this action should be taken now. If we don’t act together, we are going to the disaster,” Mr. Rafael Dochao Moreno, Charge d’Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia, said Wednesday.

Mr. Moreno was speaking at the press conference closing the Second National Forum on Climate Change that was held on October 3-5.

The forum was held against the backdrop of a flooding which is wreaking havoc in many parts of Cambodia. The natural disaster is considered the worst in more than a decade. On Wednesday, October 5, the state news agency AKP reported that the number of people who died from the flood had jumped to 164 from previously reported 147 deaths. Some 215,162 families were affected and nearly 300,000 hectares of rice field were inundated by the flood which has hit 17 out of 24 provinces and the capital city in the country.

H.E. Dr. Mok Mareth, Senior Minister and Minister of Environment said he believed that the effect of climate change was partly to blame for the present disaster.

“The vivid picture of the victims of flood is more than enough for all of us to urgently and immediately act to mitigate the sufferings and to strengthen people’s resilience and adaptive capacity under climate change conditions,” he said.

More than 300 participants took part in the three-day forum to share international and regional experiences in developing and implementing climate change agendas. They discussed issues spanning from adaptation, mitigation, cross sector issues, financing and policy frameworks. The roadmap towards a Cambodian Climate Change Strategic Plan (CCCSP) was presented and widely discussed. This policy document will pave the way for a range of cross sector strategies and action plans at national and sub-national level.

One of the significant outcomes of the forum was the award of US$2 million grant to eight projects designed to help mitigate the threats of climate change to development and rural livelihoods in Cambodia. The grant was awarded by the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA), a multi-donor trust fund set up with the Ministry of Environment by the EU, UNDP, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and Danish International Development Agency (Danida).

The eight recipients – six government agencies and two civil society organizations – will implement climate change adaptation interventions in the area of forestry, fisheries, improvement of climate-resilient techniques in farming as well as urban planning and local development covering 10 provinces.

Speaking at the press conference, Ms. Sophie Baranes, Deputy Country Director of UNDP, underlined the importance in empowering local communities in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“There is evidence that local action can be the most efficient level of response to climate change. There is already a wealth of local knowledge and coping mechanism existing at community level that should be documented and disseminated,” she said. “Access to information is really at the core of the national response to climate change.”

And raising awareness remains a critical part in response to climate change given the current lack of understanding of the issue among the large portion of the Cambodian population, said Brian Lund, Country Director of Oxfam America.

“I think that is quite critical in a country like Cambodia where the term of climate change is confusing,” he said. “How do people learn to comprehend what that is affecting their livelihood, their households? So, we’ve got more to do in terms of awareness-raising,” he said.

The Second National Forum – the first being in 2009 – was also an opportunity for Cambodia to prepare its position to the 17th Conference of Parties (CoP-17) to be held in Durban, South Africa, at the end of the year.

Senior Minister Mok Mareth said a Cambodian position to this upcoming conference is to urge industrialized nations to honor their obligations to provide financial support and renewable energy technology to least development countries like Cambodia.

“If we are to think of the future of our children, we must switch our development path into a greener, low-carbon and more climate resilient mode,” he said in his closing remarks.