CAMBODIA is scrapping plans for a US$1.5 billion (RM6.9 billion) coal project as crunch climate talks get underway in Dubai, Energy Minister Keo Rottanak said today.

He said Prime Minister Hun Manet would announce the cancellation “tomorrow”.

Phnom Penh would instead consider building a terminal for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“Cambodia is fully committed to doing whatever it can to achieve net zero by 2050,” Rottanak said in a text message.

“Our first stop before that is at least 70% renewables by 2030 with energy efficiency and electrification programs as part of the integrated strategy.”

The 700MW Botum Sakor plant had been planned on land in a protected reserve along the southwest coast of Koh Kong province.

Its cancellation would be announced tomorrow by the prime minister during a groundbreaking ceremony for a hydropower dam in the same region, Keo Rottanak said, and was intended to send a message to countries at the COP28 discussion.

“While the world talks, Cambodia acts,” he said.

Cambodia previously pledged it would not develop new coal plants, though it said it was committed to existing plans, including the Botum Sakor facility and another in the country’s north.

The two-unit Botum Sakor plant had been due to come online around 2025, Global Energy Monitor’s coal plant showed.

In December 2021, the country published its roadmap to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

It included a pledge to boost renewables, which already account for much of its electricity generation thanks to hydropower, as well as investments in LNG import, storage and infrastructure.

Coal generated 35.5% of Cambodia’s electricity in 2022, the country’s electricity authority said, with hydropower accounting for nearly 54%. – AFP, November 29, 2023.