​Why Cambodia

Cambodia is at a critical stage of development, with both significant opportunity and growing climate risk.​

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• Cambodia’s economy is the second most carbon-intensive in Southeast Asia — emitting more CO2 per unit of GDP than China, Vietnam, or Thailand — with emissions growing at 8.2% annually, outpacing GDP growth (World Bank CCDR, 2023)

• Infrastructure being built today will shape the country’s carbon trajectory for decades

• The country is highly exposed to climate risks, including floods, droughts, and rising temperatures

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At the same time, Cambodia has set ambitious climate targets:

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• Up to 55% emissions reduction by 2035 (with international support)

• Carbon neutrality by 2050 – the first such commitment in ASEAN

Meeting these targets requires USD 32.2 billion in total investment, of which USD 22.5 billion must come from international and private capital. Cambodia’s NDC 3.0 places private capital at the core of its financing model for the first time — and explicitly names CCFF as a scalable, replicable model for delivering it.

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The CCFF is designed to help mobilise that capital and direct it towards high-impact opportunities.

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The Financing Gap

Many climate-focused projects in Cambodia struggle to access financing. Not because they lack potential, but because:

• Conventional lenders offer loan tenors too short for climate infrastructure and agricultural investments, which need 7–10+ year horizons

• Many green borrowers cannot meet conventional collateral requirements — traditional lenders require hard assets that early-stage or first-time green projects often lack

• International climate financiers and impact investors typically require minimum ticket sizes above USD 10M — most Cambodian climate projects are too small to access this capital

• Local financial institutions lack the dedicated funding, tools, and experience to build green lending portfolios at scale

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CCFF is designed to address these gaps:

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• Loan tenors up to 12 years, matched to the cash flow timelines of climate projects

• Cash-flow based lending structures and broader collateral options that allow projects to be assessed on projected revenues rather than conventional land collateral, introducing project finance to Cambodia's market

• Loan sizes starting from USD 500K, bringing Cambodia's project scale within reach of concessional climate finance

• A dedicated wholesale funding channel and Technical Assistance Facility, giving LFIs the concessional funding and capacity-building support to build green lending portfolios profitably and at scale

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The objective is not only to finance individual projects, but to drive a systemic shift in how Cambodia’s financial sector allocates capital — embedding green lending as standard practice and attracting commercial banks, impact investors, and other capital providers into Cambodia’s climate finance market.