Cambodia Prepares for Climate Conference

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer

Original report from Phnom Penh

07 December 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Cambodia will ask the industrialized nations of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emission during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next week, an environment official said Saturday.

“We will call on industrialized countries to cut down on much of their emissions of greenhouse gases to resolve the climate change problem,” said Tin Ponlok, deputy director of the Ministry of Environment and one of the Cambodian officials who works on climate change.

Cambodia will also urge the industrialized nations to provide developing countries with technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and money to respond to national problems resulting from climate change, Tin Ponlok said.

The Climate Change Conference will be held Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.

Developing countries have received an estimated $300 million for help adapting to climate change, but experts say the real need will reach billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Cambodia has taken its own measures to respond to climate change, including a program of national activities approved by the Council of Ministers in 2006, Tin Ponlok said, without elaborating.

Industrializedcountries like China, Russia and the United States are among the worst global polluters and thought to be responsible for global warming, through greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide and methane.

In October, the UN’s resident coordinator in Cambodia, Douglas Broderick, warned Cambodia that failure to deal with climate change could undermine the nation’s “millennium development goals,” causing problems in the economy and in social development.

Over the past five years, Cambodia has suffered floods, droughts and storms that could be attributed to climate change, said Tep Bunnarith, executive director of the Culture and Environment Preservation Association.