Civil Society Organizations’ Participation in Climate Change Policies: A Cambodian Case Study

Sammanfattning

In my thesis I have researched civil society organisations’ (CSOs) participation in climate change policies in Cambodia. CSO participation in climate change policies is an under-researched topic globally, but especially in Southeast Asia. Empirical data was gathered through interviews with CSO representatives in organizations who are engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation (CCMA). I have used is Howlett’s (2009) policy-cycle to examine CSOs participation in the various stages of the policy process. CSOs in Cambodia participate in all stages of the policy process in national climate change policies except in decision-making. However, they do not regard their participation as genuine on behalf of the government and their inputs are rarely incorporated into policy documents. Human rights CSOs are rarely invited to government consultations on climate change. Instead, they have changed their advocacy strategies to a ’softer’ approach. Problems in the implementation phase include widespread corruption, lack of funding and capacity of adaptation measures for the impacted communities. Finally, I examine weather Cambodia’s environmental governance can be accounted for in either the Participatory Governance framework or the Authoritarian Environmentalism framework. My findings show that none of these frameworks account for the environmental governance in Cambodia to a satisfying extent.