Cambodia's environment and industry ministries have signed a sustainable energy agreement for the garment sector with the EU-funded SWITCH-Asia programme.
- Partners of the now-formalised agreement will be actively involved in reviewing the project's progress and planning its next steps, as well as improving the pertinent policies, regulations and implementation measures to deliver on the underlying joint commitments over the remaining couple of years.
The agreement: The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), which leads the programme, joined hands with the Kingdom of Cambodia’s environment and industry ministries by signing the agreement for the garment sector in the Kep province.
- The agreement was signed by Tung Ciny, Secretary of State of Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation; Vann Monyneath, Director-General, General Directorate of Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Environment; Shomi Kim, GGGI Cambodia Country Representative under the presidency of Tin Ponlok, Secretary of State of Ministry of Environment and Second Vice-Chair of the National Council for Sustainable Development on behalf of Say Samal, Minister of Environment and Chair of the National Council for Sustainable Development.
- The event was attended by ministries’ representatives, development partners and project implementers, including Geres and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC).
Energy efficient: Energy-efficiency measures will bring down electricity costs and increase profits; power rates are still higher in Cambodia than in other neighbouring countries.
- By the end of the programme’s lifespan, energy costs for the Cambodian garment industry will be around 20% lower and the Kingdom’s annual GHG emissions will have reduced by some 175 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (ktCO2e).
The project: Launched in 2020, the Promotion of Sustainable Energy Practices in the Garment Sector in Cambodia (Switch Garment) project has been working towards increasing the competitiveness and decreasing the environmental impact of the Cambodian garment industry through the adoption of sustainable energy practices and facilitating investments in clean energy technologies.
- The GGGI’s economic modelling projects that a 20% increase in Energy Efficiency (EE) in the garment sector would lead to an increase of 31% in energy productivity by 2030 and US$ 2 billion of avoided energy costs.
- The Institute proposes a holistic intervention to promote the adoption of sustainable energy practices in garment manufacturing in Cambodia by acting on multiple fronts: support to regulatory and enforcement measures, stimulating demand for sustainable energy technologies/services and increasing the supply of technologies/services and financial solutions for this purpose.
- The objective of the project is to increase the competitiveness and decrease the environmental impact of the Cambodian garment industry through sustainable production.
- Specifically, the project aims to increase the investment in sustainable energy practices (such as efficient technologies, switch to renewable energy and good operations management) by garment factories in Cambodia.
