Low Carbon News in Cambodia in August 2013
1. National Green Growth Roadmap
In collaboration with and financial support from UNESCAP, the first National Green Growth Roadmap (NGGR) was developed in 2009 as the solution to both development and environment. A total of three levels of interventions have been proposed: short, medium and long term interventions to the environmental sustainability, economic and social development.
As proposed initiative by UNESCAP and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is to guide sustainable development and enable low carbon society in the country, the road map was made up in consultation with the line ministries. The inter-ministerial Green Growth (GG) working group was formed to provide information on the country‘s needs. In early 2010, the NGGR was adopted by the Ministerial Roundtable to provide an operational basis for carrying out concrete policies for green growth development in Cambodia. The summary of each intervention is highlighted in the following sections[1].
The Roadmap aims at integrating economic, environmental and social development goals to show that environmentally sustainable economic development and human wellbeing can be achieved through short- (2-5 years), medium- (5-10 years), and long-term (10-20 years) interventions in enhancing the socio-economic life of Cambodian people at community and village levels by focusing on seven key areas:
- Access to clean water and sanitation
- Access to renewable energy
- Access to information and knowledge
- Access to means for better mobility
- Access to finance and investments
- Access to food security (agriculture) and non-chemical products
- Access to sustainable land-use
NGGR focusses on greening business, encouraging environmentally sound technologies, building sustainable infrastructures, supported by green tax and budget reform and energy efficiency policies and regulations. In addition, organic product/non-chemical product is one of the main targets among the seven accesses as mentioned in the roadmap.
The GG Roadmap recommends that the Cambodian government actively involves private enterprises in greening, and mainstream Green Growth initiatives through:
1) Overall awareness raising
2) Sector specific capacity development to increase the eco-efficiency of production
3) Inclusion of Green Growth into the Cambodian National Sustainable Development Plan and
4) Incremental implementation of Green Growth policy tools to guide a sectoral greening of economic activity.
The participation of the Ministry of Interior has been recommended for a successful implementation of Green Growth at the provincial level, involving and empowering ministerial departments to ensure that green economic growth projects are effectively mainstreamed into development planning at all administrative levels.
2. Green Growth Master Plan
Global Green Growth Institute and the RGC have drafted a Cambodia National Green Growth Master Plan (NGGMP) to implement the vision and concept of the Roadmap. The policy focus in this master plan are the 7 accesses as introduced in the NGGR and the master plan suggests major guidelines of 7 accesses for Cambodia’s green growth[2]:
- Water Resources and Management and Sanitation
- Food Security (Agriculture, Fishery, and Forestry) and Non-chemical Products
- Sustainable Land Use
- Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
- Access to Information and Knowledge
- Mean for Better Mobility
- Finance and investment
Each access has highlighted the opportunity for GG in Cambodia context and the major challenges to be encountered. Additionally, the key priority areas for policy and action plan have also been listed to reach to the objectives set in each access.
The master plan was put into the consultation workshop in April 2012 to get feedback from the line ministries and stakeholders. The master plan is currently under review by line ministries. Following the official launch, a National Committee on Green Growth (NCGG) is planned, and it has been proposed that the committee will be chaired by either the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister, giving Green Growth the highest possible support and facilitating implementation of the master plan across the country.
3. National Policy on Green Growth
In order to attract financing assistance flows, green technology, and foreign investors, RGC issues the National Policy on Green Growth with the following vision, mission, goal and action plans[3].
- Vision: The national policy is envisaged to strike balance of economic development with environment, society, and sustainable use of resources through integration, matching, and adaptation, as well as harmonization between a green growth principle and national policy.
- Goal: This policy aims at enhancing the well being and livelihood of all people in harmonization with ecological safety through green development, basing on green economy, blue economy, environmental protection, social safety nets and uphold of national cultural identity.
- Strategy: There are totally four strategies have been set up to achieve the above mentioned goals:
- Inter-national and international institutional cooperation and coordination
- Study, research, and data analysis
- Harmonization of Green Growth in Economy, Society and Culture
- Human Resources Development
- Sustainable Green Technology Development
- Action Plan: there are followings five action plan to be implemented:
- Creating mechanism
- Creating a legal framework
- Financial support
- Human resources Development
- Implementation Process
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Effective monitoring and evaluation should be in place to monitor the progress and improve this policy implementation.
In conclusion, RGC has place green growth in high value to ensure the balancing between economy, environment, society and culture. The implementation of green growth is to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, advance social progress, and safety and uphold national culture value.