The Royal Government of Cambodia has taken significant steps to address climate change in both policies and institutional processes. A chronology of these efforts is presented below, showing significant markers that have shaped Cambodia's policy framework for climate change repsonse.
1995: Cambodia ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);
2002: Cambodia became the member of the Kyoto Protocol and submitted the Initial National Communication (INC) to the 8th Conference of the Party of the UNFCCC;
2003: Climate Change Office was established at the Ministry of Environment. Then it became Climate Change Department in 2010;
2006: The government established the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC)—high-level policy-making body, and developed the National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change (NAPA) comprised of priority projects to be integrated into national or local planning. After that, the Climate Change Technical Team (CCTT) was established with the responsibility for technical activities and provision of advice to the NCCC;
2009: The National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) update 2009-2013 integrated climate change for the first time. It emphasized that ‘to effectively deal with the implications of climate change, the capacity of RGC institutions needs to be strengthened to identify and develop a strategy to deal with the anticipated impact of the climate change, and strengthening disaster management capabilities’ and specifically requested the preparation of a national strategy and action plan for climate change;
2013: The Prime Minister of Cambodia approved the Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan 2014-2023, which required the development of necessary frameworks, i.e., monitoring and evaluation, finance, legislation, and information and knowledge management. In 2014-2015, 14-line ministries approved their respective Climate Change Action Plan and have started implementing its priority actions since then;
2014: Climate change was identified as a cross-cutting issue and integrated in the National Strategic Development Plan 2014-2018, while (some) ministries listed the climate change response measures in their priorities.
2015: New institutional arrangements for climate change resulted in a merger of four national council/committees to form the National Council for Sustainable Development with its General Secretariat consisting of Department of Climate Change. The government submitted the Second National Communication to the UNFCCC.
2016: Cambodia ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Before the Paris Agreement, Cambodia had submitted Cambodia’s (I)NDC.
2017: The Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Interior issued technical guidelines for integrating climate change at sub-national planning processes. At the national level, the Climate Change Technical Working Group was established and has had regular meetings.
2018: Rectangular Strategy phase IV (2019-2023) has integrated climate change in its 4th pillar “Sustainable and Inclusive Development”. This corresponds to the 4th angle “Ensuring Environmental Sustainability and Preemptive Response to Climate Change,” serving as a policy framework for mainstreaming climate change responses into the NSDP 2019-2023.
2019: The localization of the SDG-13 was completed, resulting in five indicators on climate change. The MOP with support from DCC has put rigorous efforts to align the indicators on climate change in SDG 13 with those in the NSDP 2019-2023.
2019: The draft Environment and Natural Resource Code allocates a Title on climate change. Once ENR Code is aproved, its Title on Climate Change will provide a solid legal framework for climate change work and for forthcoming climate change regulations.