Energy

About 200 monks from Phnom Penh’s Wat Lanka on Thursday called off a protest against the planned construction of an electricity distribution substation on the pagoda’s land by state electricity provider Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), pending negotiations with the company. Having assembled to make banners for ...

Tuk-tuk, motorbike and taxi drivers were among hundreds of workers from Cambodia’s “informal economy” who called on the government yesterday to cap fuel prices at 4,000 riel ($1) per litre, amid claims that the current 5,000 riel price leaves them unable to cover any more ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday signed off on nine wide-ranging deals with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung during a state visit that ends Saturday, including arrangements to tighten media, public security and trade cooperation, according to Cambodian and Vietnamese state media. Cambodian state news ...

Cambodian lawmakers on Friday endorsed the setting up of a new ministry specifically in charge of mines and energy, in the hope that oil and gas production will finally get under way in the next couple of years. The new Ministry of Mines and Energy will ...

CPP lawmakers including Prime Minister Hun Sen unanimously voted Friday for their party members, Suy Sem and Cham Prasidh, to become heads of the newly created Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, respectively. The 67 ruling-party parliamentarians present also approved ...

A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...

Cambodia is moving forward with development of the Lower Se San 2 hydropower project and is seeking support from surrounding nations. A spirit of collaboration was established on Tuesday at a meeting between Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, Tourism Minister Dr. Thong Khon and ...

The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) study on the potential long-term effects of large-scale dam building on the Mekong River needs to be expedited, members of the MRC agreed at the Fifth Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Saturday. However, they did not set a date for the ...

Resettlement studies are being carried out at the site of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, officials said yesterday, amid suggestions that yet another Chinese company is now involved in the controversial project.Tou Savuth, Thma Bang district governor, said staff ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen was scheduled to meet with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Sunday, a day after Japan and the member states of Asean agreed to ensure “freedom of overflight” in the region. The agreement will likely be taken as an affront by ...

Low electrification rates and over-dependence on fossil fuel imports have contributed to Cambodia’s abysmally low ranking in the new World Economic Forum’s Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report for 2014. Cambodia ranked 120 out of 124 nations, with a so-called Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI) score ...

Communities threatened by the planned construction of three hydropower dams in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces will today submit to the Chinese Embassy a petition demanding that the embassy intervene against Chinese companies investing in the dams. The petition, to be presented in Chinese, Khmer and ...

The National Assembly will vote this month to decide whether the ruling CPP’s recently removed Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Suy Sem, will be appointed as the new Minister of Mines and Energy, CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun said Friday. Mr. Sem’s return to his old, ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of Australia are expanding access to economical and reliable energy for rural Cambodian households, including through the promotion of cookstoves in Svay Rieng and Kampong Cham provinces. A $6.1 million Australian Aid grant, administered by ADB, will finance ...

Panasonic, a leading manufacturer of electronics, will donate 1,500 solar lanterns to the UNESCO Phnom Penh Office to distribute to the poorest villages in Angkor Park on Tuesday, according to a press release issued by UNESCO. UNESCO will in turn hand the lanterns to the APSARA ...

The momentum toward large-scale dams on the Mekong River may be unstoppable, but governments must work fast to mitigate their effects on fisheries and biodiversity or risk long-term food insecurity for millions of people whose lives depend on the river and its tributaries, leading academics ...

Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand have all called on Laos to submit its planned Don Sahong hydropower dam to an intergovernmental assessment. According to the dam’s opponents, the Laos National Mekong Committee has acted unilaterally in the planning of its second Mekong dam, a project they fear ...

The Royal Cambodian government is continuing talks with US major Chevron regarding the delayed Block A offshore project that would be the Asean member nation’s first indigenous hydrocarbon development. In August 2010, eight years after being awarded the block, Chevron issued a declaration of commerciality and ...

Against the backdrop of high electricity costs and energy imports, Cambodian businesses could save millions of dollars annually by implementing energy-efficient business practices, insiders said yesterday. “It is clear that energy efficiency has multiple benefits, not only to the tourism sector but also other economic sectors ...

Cambodia imported 1.31 billion tonnes of oil in the first 10 months of this year, a 2.2 per cent slide compared to 1.34 billion tonnes in the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Industry experts said the drop did not ...

A month after a company owned by tycoon Kith Meng was ordered to suspend logging the reservoir area of the controversial Lower Sesan II dam, the government yesterday threatened legal action against it if its orders aren’t followed. In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the Council ...

As Laos pushes toward its goal of becoming the “battery of Asia” through hydropower, its newfound claim that the location for the proposed Don Sahong dam is not on the Mekong River’s main stream is provoking incredulity from some observers. Less than two kilometres north of ...

Vietnam has joined Cambodia in questioning the sustainability of the planned Don Sahong dam project on the Mekong River in southern Laos, saying more environmental impact studies are needed before the scheme moves forward. Le Duc Trung, director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee under ...

A new study and accompanying short film released yesterday call for all lower Mekong dam developers to halt plans until further impact studies can be made. Hydropower dams will have a greater impact on river flows than even climate change, according to research by the University ...