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This profile is intended to serve as a public good to facilitate upstream country diagnostics, policy dialogue, and strategic planning by providing comprehensive overviews of trends and projected changes in key climate parameters, sector-specific implications, relevant policies and programs, adaptation priorities and opportunities for further actions. Cambodia is part of Southeast Asia, bordered by Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam and with a coastal region on the Gulf of Thailand. The Royal Government of Cambodia launched the first Climate Change Strategic Plan – 2014–2023 (CCCSP) in 2013. Cambodia submitted its Initial Nationally Determined Contribution in 2016 and submitted its Updated Nationally Determined Contribution in December, 2020, which established the country’s commitment to its mitigation and adaptation efforts. Cambodia’s Second National Communication to the UNFCCC (NC2) (2016) identifies the impacts of climate change in Cambodia upon human lives and the expected significant damage to economic development and natural resources. These include intensified floods, droughts, saline intrusion and extreme weather events. Cambodia remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its high dependency on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water resources, forestry, fisheries, tourism, etc., which form the critical foundation of its economic growth and support the livelihoods of a significant majority of its population.

Key messages include: 

• Cambodia is projected to experience warming of 3.1°C by the 2090s, against the baseline conditions over 1986–2005 under the highest emissions pathway, RCP8.5.
• Increased incidence of extreme heat represents a major threat to human health in Cambodia, especially for outdoor laborers and urban populations for whom heat rises are compounded by the urban heat island effect.
• Without action, the population exposed to an extreme river flood could grow by around 4 million by the 2040s, however human development factors such as the damming of the Mekong River as well as the large-scale dams built on its tributaries, may alter future flood dynamics.
• The impacts outlined above may significantly exacerbate existing issues of wealth and income inequality and will hinder poverty alleviation efforts.