Cambodia Climate Change Alliance

Purpose of Project

The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) has two main aims:

• To support capacity development and institutional strengthening to prepare for and mitigate climate change risks.
• To directly help vulnerable communities by enhancing their resilience to climate change and other natural hazards.

The CCCA includes two mechanisms:

• A unified engagement point for development partners.
• A multi-donor financial facility, the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance Trust Fund, which provides grants for projects that help Cambodia adapt to climate change.

The CCCA approach is based on three principles:

• Climate change must be given higher priority by the Government and society.
• Adaptation and mitigation must be addressed in a broad development context and linked to the government’s poverty reduction agenda.
• Climate change is about people and their livelihoods. Special efforts are needed to include women and youth in the response.

Main Activities

• The activities of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance will support the development of a National Climate Change strategy and Action Plan and support the mainstreaming of climate change into key priority sectors.
• The CCCA programme will also implement capacity building and institutional strengthening activities, and will manage the application and approval process for grants to line ministries and civil societies from the CCCA Trust Fund. The CCCA Trust Fund secretariat will screen and review requests for grant funding under the CCCA Trust Fund to ensure that they contribute to the objectives of the CCCA. The trust fund will be administered initially by UNDP, but it is envisioned that this arrangement will eventually be replaced by country systems, possibly a government-managed trust fund or direct budget support. CCCA grants will be implemented by the government and civil society, with technical support provided by external development partners as required.
• A substantial portion of the capacity development will occur within the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC), which comprises representatives of 20 government ministries and agencies, and the Climate Change Department, which provides secretariat services to the NCCC. The CCCA will also support the implementation of public outreach and knowledge management activities including the development of a national education and awareness strategy and action on climate change for Cambodia.
• CCCA will also promote policy dialogue and debates on climate change to enhance public debate and participation on climate change actions. (see UNDP Project #00069653).
• Development partners are invited to make contributions to the fund in the form of pooled and non-targeted resources on the basis of contractual agreements between each donor and UNDP. It is expected that grants will be made to projects that are aligned with the 39 “no regrets” projects identified as priorities in the National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change (NAPA). Four priority areas for adaptation are identified in the NAPA: water resources management and agriculture, forestry, health, and the coastal zone.The projects are expected to lead to improvements in adaptation, resilience and response to climate-induced changes and natural disastersUltimately, the projects will improve the living standardshealth and welfare of the people affected by climate change now, and in the future.

Key Results

The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance has three main expected results:

• Capacity development: Capacity development: The National Climate Change Committee has stronger capacity to coordinate efforts on national policy making, capacity development and outreach/advocacy, and to monitor the implementation of the National Climate Change strategy and Action Plan.
• Awareness-raising: A knowledge-management and learning platform operates to provide Cambodia with updated knowledge and opportunities to learn about climate change. This mechanism collects experiences and best practices from the region as well as Cambodia and disseminates them beyond the government to civil society and the broader community of practice.
• Grants: key line ministries, agencies and civil society organizations have access to financial and technical resources to design, implement and monitor climate change adaptation interventions.

Background

The impact of climate change will be an unprecedented and increasing global threat to life, livelihoods and life-supporting systems.

Climate change is expected to compound and amplify development challenges, stresses and problems Cambodia is expected to experience higher and more intense rainfall. The effects are likely to include more severe water scarcity and more frequent floods, resulting in crop failures and food shortages. Accelerated loss of biodiversity will cause a decline in ecosystem services. Coastal communities and eco-systems are likely to be affected by rises in sea levels. Higher temperatures and humidity will create conditions for increased incidence of malaria and dengue fever. The poor and marginalized, particularly women and children, will be worst affected.

In 2007, the European Union agreed to build a Global Climate Change Alliance between the EU and the developing countries that are likely to be hardest hit by climate change. Cambodia was selected to be a pilot country. UNDP supported an expansion of this vision by facilitating the participation of other donors, initially Sweden and Denmark. In october 2009, the NCCC held Cambodia’s first National Forum on Climate Change. The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) was announced at the forum by the EU and UNDP and formally launched in February 2010.

The CCCA is one of several initiatives designed to strengthen Cambodia’s response to climate change. The government submitted its National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change (NAPA) to the UNFCCC in 2007. The NAPA is now being updated and the first NAPA follow-up project, Promoting Climate resilient Water Management and Agricultural Practices in rural Cambodia, is being implemented.