Climate resilience is a cross-cutting priority for CAPRED and the Australian Government. Cambodia is highly
exposed to the effects of climate change, with increasing threats to natural resources, workforce
productivity and critical bases of economic growth. The economy is highly dependent on climate-sensitive
sectors such as agriculture, water resources, forestry and fisheries. Without necessary actions, increases
in climate change impacts – including the intensity and frequency of floods and droughts – are expected to
reduce the country’s overall gross domestic product by about 10% by 2050. These changes disproportionately
affect the most vulnerable Cambodians, including rural communities and Indigenous Peoples with limited means
of adaptation.
CAPRED contributes to climate change mitigation by investing in solutions that reduce emissions, such as
supporting renewable energy generation and distribution and energy efficiency measures. The program promotes
climate change adaptation measures such as climate-smart agricultural technologies, low-carbon
agro-processing, and piped clean water infrastructure.
The Royal Government of Cambodia has stated that 95% of climate finance in Cambodia will focus on supporting
adaptation measures. Yet there is a 90%-95% financing gap (US$800 million) to meet the funding needs of the
Cambodian National
Adaptation Plan.
CAPRED is helping the Royal Government of Cambodia with climate adaptation investments. The program is also
committed to catalysing the private sector’s participation in climate-smart investments, contributing to
Cambodia’s effort to reduce the financing gap to combat climate change.
We are also supporting climate mitigation and Cambodia’s Nationally Determined Contribution. As a Party to
the Paris Agreement, Cambodia must establish a Nationally Determined Contribution and update it every 5
years. Cambodia gave its Carbon Long-Term Development Strategy (LTS4CN) to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change in 2021.
Climate resilience is a cross-cutting issue for CAPRED. We use a participatory disaster risk reduction and climate change approach to assess climate risks and identify opportunities to enhance adaptation and mitigation measures in all our activities. This approach helps us to design activities that are more focused on climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially in agriculture and infrastructure.
Agricultural production has been significantly affected by climate change, including through
increased exposure to droughts, floods, heat and pests. It is predicted that for each one-degree
Celsius increase in temperature, rice productivity will decline by 10%.
CAPRED is working on innovative agricultural initiatives including promoting climate-smart
agriculture technologies and inputs, strengthening value chains, and improving
post-harvest planning.
We are promoting more sustainable and climate-adaptive crop varieties. These include the new
fragrant rice variety, Champei Sar 70, which was developed with Australian funding and can be
harvested three times per year to promote food security.
We are also introducing innovative technologies to increase the resilience of Cambodia’s
agricultural production and decrease water and input use and land disturbance. These include
growth-based irrigation technology and straw chopping harvesters.
CAPRED also provides training in the best use of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides and in soil
improvement for seed producers. We are looking to promote crop insurance as a social safety net for
farmers, especially smallholder farmers, for both climate and price shocks.
CAPRED’s work on infrastructure also has climate dimensions, including improving planning and
management of water storage and clean water distribution to help build the resilience of rural
Cambodians to drought and other climate change impacts.
We will also play a role in matching green finance to potential projects in Cambodia through our
finance-focused work.
In the energy sector, CAPRED focuses on providing technical capabilities and policy support to
increase renewable power uptake, improve infrastructure resilience and reduce emissions. We are
working with government agencies and the private sector to pilot a mini-off-grid solar farm to
supply electricity to remote communities.
See our latest resources from across the CAPRED program.
View moreAccess to clean water reduces poverty, supports economic growth and environmental sustainability. It also has the power to change lives. For Narun, a visually impaired father in Cambodia, access to clean water has improved the quality of his family’s life.
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