14^th February 2018, the Programme Support Board (PSB) of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) conducted its 12^th meeting at Ministry of Environment (MoE) under the chairmanship of H.E. Sao Sopheap, MoE’s advisor as well as Director of Cabinet, on behalf of H.E. Say Samal, Minister of Environment and Chairperson of the CCCA’s PSB. The meeting was also attended by PSB members from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology; Ministry of Economy and Finance; and representatives from the development partners including the European Union, and UNDP, as well as representatives of selected stakeholders to review the​ entire implementation period of 2017, and​​ the activity and budget plan for 2018-2019.

In his welcome remarks, H.E. Sopheap underlined the government efforts, MoE, as well as the National Council for Sustainable Development, including the development of Environment and Natural Resources Code, National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan and REDD+ strategic plan. He further appreciated and emphazed the important role of CCCA and development partners in promoting inter-ministry cooperation towards climate change policy and strategy development supporting Cambodia’s vision of a greener and low carbon society.

The meeting reviewed the achievements of CCCA during 2017 and discussed planned activities for 2018-2019. Key achievements for 2017 include:

1. Climate Change Technical Working Group (CCTWG) is established, consisting of 19 ministries/institutions to coordinate and provide technical supports to NCSD in the climate change responses;
2. Mainstreaming climate change into the legal framework and commune investment projects;
3. Integrating climate change in budget submissions of Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Public Works and Transport, and in the budget guidance of Ministry of Economy and Finance;
4. Partnership on sustainable development, including climate change, is established between GSSD and 4 academia institutions, namely Royal University of Agriculture, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Prek Leap National College of Agriculture and Mean Chey University;
5. Grant facility for 22 governmental institutions/agencies and NGOs, for implementation of sectoral priorities of climate change actions plans, and research and innovation for the climate change response, including promising approaches e.g. to promote sustainable fuels in garment industry, give remote communities access to markets for their climate-smart agriculture products, promote biodigester technology in medium-sized pig farms, or apply climate-proof standard for rural water infrastructures;

The key decisions made from the 12^th PSB meeting are:

1. Approval of CCCA’s annual progress report for 2017;
2. Endorsement of the activities and budget plan for 1.5 years, 2018-19, for mainstreaming climate change into legal framework and sub-national planning, grant facility, managing and coordinating climate change financing, and knowledge management;
3. Approval on orientation and next steps for CCCA phase 3 preparation.