Abstract
From wildfires in Bolivia, floods, and mudslides in South Africa, Nepal, and Myanmar, to heatwaves in Australia and Europe, the impact of climate change is felt globally but in unequal measures, as developing and least developed countries suffer the most devastating impacts despite being the least contributors. As a result, climate change is center stage because countries and their governments, organisations as well as multinationals are battling to contain its effects. Through the Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement, countries pledged to mitigate climate change in their capacities. However, some of these contributions are overly ambitious for poor countries like Cambodia measuring it against their national capacities. Therefore, this paper investigates Cambodia’s official position on climate change vis-a-vis its current environmental practices, mitigation policies, and strategies by analysing three major climate change amplifiers – waste, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions to determine whether it is the environmentally friendly country it portrays itself to be internationally or simply greenwashing. This paper merges both qualitative content and document analyses of official policy documents and agreements, reports, data, and publications of major climate change stakeholders in Cambodia. By in-depth analysis, it is established that Cambodia shows commitment to combating climate change, however, with current environmental practices and policy implementation, Cambodia moves towards solving the pressing issues of hunger and poverty with economic growth and development as a priority before consideration for the climate and environment. On this basis, it is recommended that the least developed countries set and maintain realistic climate goals and continue to receive external support from developed countries with monitoring and evaluating systems established to be up to par in the fulfilment of global agendas such as Agenda 2030. Keywords: greenwashing, climate change, El Nino, climate action, Cambodia, climate justice
Highlights
Cambodia is a South-East Asian rural country about three times the size of Lithuania and only about a quarter of France
The paper provides answers to the following research questions - what are the ways in which Cambodia is combatting climate change? Is Cambodia taking the necessary steps to be an environmentally friendly country or just posing as one? What are Cambodia’s achievements, if any, in climate change mitigation? What is the reality as regards to environmental practices in Cambodia? The goal of this paper is to examine Cambodia’s environmental practices to determine whether it is a country that desires by its actions to be environmentally friendly or it is just “greenwashing”
Examining Cambodia as a least developed country against the concepts of greenwashing, blue washing and green public relations, it is clear that its international stand is not sufficient to measure the authenticity of its commitment to combatting climate change
Summary
Cambodia is a South-East Asian rural country about three times the size of Lithuania and only about a quarter of France. Cambodia is characterised by mountains as well as the Tonle Sap, which is the largest lake in South-East Asia and the Mekong River that cuts across other countries. It has several plains and a tropical climate. The third area which is across the middle of the country where the Tonle Sap Lake passes through is where most rice farmers cultivate their crops because of the flatness of the ground and the swamps. Cambodia has experienced a series of natural disasters alongside its Asian counterparts like Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, and the Philippines
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