National Workshop on Cambodia’ Citizen Climate Budget

In order to develop a Citizen Climate Budget (CCB) that will present the government’s budget plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation in accessible language and formats, the NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF) is worked with an external consultant to conduct a desk review assignment and lead a consultation process related to the audiences, content and formats of the Citizen Climate Budget (CCB). The CCB report then was drafted and the NGO Forum and consulted through two-separate sub-national consultation workshop on 04-05 July 2019 at Siem Reap and Kampong Cham Province in order to seek for input and foresight from relevant stakeholders including provincial department of the Ministry of Environment (MoE), Network for Environment and Climate Change Alliance members and community representative to produce policy brief and final report for widely dissemination. For next, NGOF together with partners UNDP regional and Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) are going to organize the national consultation workshop on Cambodia’s citizens climate budget report that will taking place on August 12, 2019 from 8:30am–1:00pm at Himawari hotel. There were total 47 participants (15 females) from the representative of inter-ministries, Development Partners, CSOs, academia and students.

The objectives of this workshop were: • To present participants on the draft CCB report • To gather inputs from relevant key stakeholders on the draft citizen climate budget report through assessing and identifying the Climate Change Financing Expenditure and Projection. • To incorporate inputs as a mean into the final draft of the report for the last consultation workshop in national level.

Keynote Address RUPP, Dr. Rath Sethik, Dean of Royal University of Phnom Penh. It is important to collect inputs for Climate Change. The Climate Change is globally phenomena such as flood, drought, and partial raining. The state has cope with it based on their capacity. Base on the research mentioned that in Cambodia, the capacity to cope with it still limited. Inter-ministries have been tried all their best especially National Committee for Disaster Management. Natural Disaster preparedness is very important. It is important to have enough information. The budget was also very important. He fully supported the participation of all stakeholders to cope with climate change. Wish all participants all the best.

Keynote Address by Mr. Julien Chevillard, Chief Technical Advisor, UNDP/CCCA representative. He mentioned that UNDP were actively working with government such as climate change adaptation and mitigation. The last figure showed that climate finance is very important. There were about 30 % of the government budget supported the CCCA program. Cambodia has regularly updated the data of climate change budge every year. The citizen has the role to follow up the climate budget allocation and carefully monitor it. UNDP working in partnership with NGO Forum, to create the platform for sharing the information of Climate Change Budget. NGO Forum has collected those recommendations from the community to share with all key stakeholders. It is the opportunity to share climate change budget information. He said that he looks forward to hearing the feedback from all key stakeholders and wished the consultation to work well. He hopes to hear from all participants the effectiveness of the Climate Change Budget and looking for fruitful discussion.

Welcome, Remark Dr. Tek Vannara, Executive Director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia. Respected all participants. The study conducted by the consultant, supported by the Swedish embassy and Regional UNDP office. Welcomed that MoEF supported climate change budget. CMDG goal 13 to promote the development in Cambodia, the research finding is very important to contribute to the development progress. The two sub-national workshops were conducted in Siem Reap and Kampong Cham provinces. The inputs were very important that have been collected from the community and all key stakeholders. He encouraged all participants to constructively involve in the discussion. In Rattanakiri province was affected by flood from Sesan river and about 500 families were invacuated. Many Rice fields were affected. It is very important about climate change funding information. The result of the research will be shared to MoEF, MoE and other government institutions. He wished all participants all the best and success in their work.

Presentation on a draft of Cambodia’s citizen's climate budget report

Mr. Chan Sophal, consultant said that as Mr. Julien mentioned this morning, the research finding is simple information for citizen to understand. Please help to see the information about the national budget and the climate change budget, expense change by NGOs, Development partner and government. Based on the information this morning in the newspaper, it is flooded everywhere and many people died. Climate Vulnerability in Cambodia Events Relating to Climate Change including irregular rainfall, flood, storm, drought and increase temperature. Since 2,000-2017, there were many people affected by flood, drought and storm.

The impact of climate change on the economy could be as big as 10% of GDP by 2050. In 2020 GDP dropped to -0. 4%, 2030-2. 5%, 2040-6%,2050-9. 8%,

Women are vulnerable to climate change. Since 2008 there were many policies and strategic framework were developed to cope with climate change in Cambodia including National Program Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change developed in 2006, National Green Growth Program Direction developed in 2009, National Forest Program 2010-2029, Report examining the institutional and public spending of climate change in Cambodia developed in 2012, National Strategic Plan for Green Growth developed in 2013, Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan and National Action Plan for Disaster Reduction 2013, NSDP 2014-2018 and Cambodia Climate Change Financing Framework (CCFF).

What is the increase in the national budget? National spending has increased substantially over the past several years, reaching $ 3,357 million in 2014. $ 6,360 million in 2019 (almost twice). The national budget has grown significantly over the past several years as a result of high earnings, which led to money. Save by the Government. The national budget has grown significantly over the years, however foreign loans are still necessary for investment as much as needed.

How much does the government spend on climate change action plans? Only 1% of GDP accounts for 3.2% of total public expenditure and slightly declines from 2015 to 2017, however, the wider public sector accounts for 30% of total expenditure. The Public spending on climate change is minimal compared to other costs in 2017 Only 912 billion Riels ($ 225 million). Pay only 3% for climate change resilience. Only 27 % costs that contribute to climate change adaptation.

What is the cost of climate change? The cost of climate change in the Ministry is significant as a percentage of total climate change costs in 2017. There are 14 Inter-ministries spent budget for climate change especially ministries of water resource and meteorology (MoWRAM) spent 37%. Ministry of transportation spent 19%. Ministry of Rural Development spent 10%, Ministry of Agriculture, forestry and fisheries spent 10%, Ministry of Environment spent 4%, Ministry of Health spent 3% and other ministries spent 17%.

The key sectors with high climate change cost share compared with total climate change cost. priority important sector spends on climate change including irrigation, road improvement, livelihood of vulnerable people group affected by climate change, climate change action plan and disaster risk management. Priority Spending on Plan of Action for Resistance to Climate Change.

Where the budget from? Most climate change spending through major ministries is funded by donors rather than local resources (in billions of riels). Most of the funding came from donor agencies.

Does the budget expense for adaptation and mitigations according to the action plan? The actual cost of coping with climate change is about $ 160 million a year, or slightly more than the planned cost in the last three years (in billion riels). Actual expenditure on climate change versus the planned expenditure of the ministry with the highest associated costs (in billions of riels). Ministries of Water Resource and Meteorology (MoWRAM) spent more budget than other ministries.

How are gender issues being included in climate change costs? 10% consider gender in the program related to climate change. 55% consider climate change in gender program.

Recommendations • The government should increase the cost of climate change directly, because Cambodia is facing a very high-risk of climate change. • Relevant Ministries should submit budget information on the Ministry's website, with the inclusion of gender issues for climate change for the public to access. • The government should provide simple information on climate change impacts and budget allocations and expenditure aimed at tackling climate change. • The government should prepare regular reports on climate change budget for the people. The Ministry of Economy and Finance should prepare this report with current information. A simplified one that illustrates the budget allocations and plans the government has taken on climate change issues. • Relevant ministries should allow non-governmental partners the opportunity to participate in climate change decision-making and provide mechanisms for NGOs and institutions involved in coping with climate change. Climate change participates in monitoring and monitoring.

Recap and closing remark, Mr. Sam Sovann, Chairman of NGOs Environment and Climate Change Alliance (NECA) Steering Committee. Thanks to all the comments made by all participants. It is the third workshop after Siem Reap and Kampong Cham provinces. He hopes that the consultant will review it based on the inputs from all key relevant stakeholders. Wish all participants all the best and success in their works.

Conclusion: Based on my observation, this workshop reached the objectives and participants able to gain more knowledge on the draft citizen climate budget on Cambodia report and the content in the booklet. It was reviewed and generated key inputs from key relevant stakeholders on proposed contents of the report. All inputs which gathered from the consultation workshops will be consolidated and incorporated into the final report and widely dissemination in the future.