Climate change

Phom Penh was selected on Wednesday as one of 35 cities joining a $100 million “resiliency” program meant to strengthen urban centres’ abilities to respond to shocks and stresses, including climate change, natural disasters, pollution and resource scarcity. “The intense growth occurring and projected for ...

Citing Cambodia’s vulnerability to climate change, civil society groups have called for global responses to the issue as the United Nations prepares for its annual climate change convention in Lima, Peru. ...

Despite one success story emerging in the trade of Cambodia-generated carbon credits, immediate prospects for the environmental trading scheme in Kingdom remain few. Securing buyers of carbon credits for Cambodian projects is a well-known difficulty. Pact, however, left the project in July 2013 when the ...

Eight coastal provinces across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam signed a declaration last week, announcing their intention to work more closely together to better adapt residents of the low-lying communities to the effects of climate change. ...

Amid a recent spate of riverbank collapses in Kampong Cham province that have so far damaged three properties, authorities are advising the owners of nearly 40 houses to move their structures. Yesterday’s collapse in the province’s Kampong Cham commune destroyed the Khyol Tonle restaurant in front ...

Cambodian farmers are at high risk of being affected by climate change due to low levels of awareness, education and adaptation, with women particularly vulnerable, a study released yesterday says. The study, which surveyed farmers in the provinces of Battambang, Kampong Thom, Takeo and Prey Veng, ...

More than 100 officials from some 20 economies in Asia and the Pacific are meeting with donor institution representatives in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in a bid to strengthen public financial management systems for climate change adaptation projects, said a news statement on Monday. ...

Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology foretasted Saturday that Cambodia will see rainfalls from 25-28 August due to low pressure weather across Mekong River basin, Thailand and Laos. A statement issued by Water Resource Minister Lim Kean Hour said Phnom Penh capital, and Kandal, Kampong Speu, ...

Six people across the country, including two young children, died in flood-related incidents yesterday, bringing the total number killed so far this rainy season to 17, according to government figures. Keo Vy, cabinet director at the National Committee for Disaster Management, said that fatalities were recorded ...

The death toll from recent floods has reached six people, while inundations have caused more than 4,400 families across four provinces to be evacuated from their homes, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management. “The full extent of the damage is not known yet,” said ...

The Ministry of Environment yesterday shared its vision for a greener, less-carbon-emitting, climate-resilient Cambodia, but presented few detailed steps towards getting there, and even fewer financial particulars.​ The 10-year strategic initiative did not offer any further financial guidance. Though it identifies eight priority areas and ...

US credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has ranked Cambodia’s economy and creditworthiness as the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Of 116 nations measured by S&P as part of a vulnerability index published last month – with a number 1 ranking being the ...

When Cambodia’s most prominent forest activist, Chut Wutty, was gunned down in April 2012, the community network he created to sabotage the rampant deforestation of this vast forest fragmented. The forest patrols that he organised nearly ground to a halt. Without money to fund large-scale expeditions, ...

The Ministry of Water and Meteorology has warned farmers of a rainfall shortage forecast to last at least another month, with average daily temperatures also forecast to remain above average. The announcement, issued on Monday, says that up until mid-July Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Takeo, ...

The Asian Development Bank announced Wednesday that it will provide $81.7 million, including a $6.7 million grant from Australia, in additional financing to help Cambodia recover from catastrophic floods in late 2013. The flooding affected 1.7 million people and caused an estimated $356 million in damage. ...

Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) have been urged by the Cambodian government to employ more environmentally friendly practices at a green industry workshop in Phnom Penh yesterday. Cham Prasidh, minister for the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, said SMEs and handicraft producers’ reliance on fossil fuels ...

Scientists have discovered a new phenomenon in the skies above Southeast Asia: a huge, invisible hole in the atmosphere’s lowest layer that may exacerbate the effects of Cambodia’s climate change. The hole – roughly twice the length of New Zealand and concentrated just east of the ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) released a report yesterday showing that only $356 million was spent on the restoration of infrastructure destroyed by last year’s floods – far below the $500 million in damage estimated beforehand. Nhim Vanda, vice chairman of the NCDM, said ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said Tuesday that it needs an additional $217 million from donors and NGOs to help recovery efforts from the floods of September and October 2013. A document accompanying the Post-Flood Early Recovery Needs Assessment Report, prepared by the ...

Officials said two people were killed on Tuesday by separate lightning strikes in Pailin and Kompong Cham provinces as the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a warning about seasonal storms spreading across the country. Searing temperatures and the approach of wet season ignited the ...

Residents along Cambodia’s coastline may want to relocate to higher ground in the wake of a climate-change assessment that predicts much of the Kingdom’s coast could be submerged by rising sea levels. Based on predictive models that take into account global temperature trends and melting ice ...

The hot season is set to roll through Cambodia in earnest beginning on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. ...

Cambodia is changing fast. Over the past decade, the capital city, Phnom Penh has expanded exponentially: its bodies of water have been filled in and green spaces diminished. Rural to urban migration has changed the shape of the countryside. Great shifts are under way and ...

Air pollution from vehicles and electric generators inside the Angkor Archeological Park and in Siem Reap City is soiling and darkening the monuments at the World Heritage Site, an official at the Apsara Authority, which is responsible for the park, said Friday. Options to decrease ...