Cambodia and UNDP Launch $4 Million Push to Tackle E-Waste and Lower Emissions

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), working alongside Cambodia's Ministry of Environment, has rolled out a new initiative aimed at improving electronic waste management and advancing a circular economy in the country. The effort is supported by a $4 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Spanning five years from 2026 to 2031, the project falls under the Global Electronics Management (GEM) programme, an international effort designed to curb pollution and boost resource efficiency throughout the electronics value chain.

According to the UNDP, the project is expected to directly benefit more than 200,000 people in Cambodia by creating safer working environments and lowering exposure to dangerous waste.

Beyond the initial grant, the programme draws around $26 million in additional funding from the Cambodian government and private-sector partners. It aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by over 27,000 tonnes, guarantee the safe handling and disposal of hazardous materials including persistent organic pollutants and mercury, and stop more than 20,000 tonnes of toxic substances from reaching the environment.

Cambodia is one of three nations where the UNDP is spearheading the GEM programme, together with Vietnam and Colombia.

A Growing Challenge

Enrico Gaveglia, the UNDP's resident representative in Cambodia, noted that the country's shift in the use of electronic devices has been both rapid and substantial.

He said that by 2024, Cambodia had roughly 24 million electronic devices in circulation, underscoring the urgency of building and updating systems to handle these devices once they reach the end of their lifespan.

"We need to strengthen capacity and safeguards to prevent communities and workers from being exposed to hazardous practices and toxic substances. This initiative supports the transition towards safer and more practical systems that protect public health and strengthen the foundations for a more sustainable and resilient economy," he said.

Xiaofang Zhou, who leads cooling systems, circular economy and pollution prevention at the UNDP, explained that e-waste holds both valuable materials and hazardous ones, which makes recovering and reusing them a complicated task.

"The challenge is to recover these materials for reuse without creating risks to the environment and human health," she said, pointing out that many products are not built with recovery in mind, leaving them hard to take apart and sort.

"To address this challenge, stronger collection, dismantling and treatment systems are needed to recover materials safely and more efficiently, rather than losing those materials or managing them under unsafe conditions," she added.

Moving Toward a Circular Economy

Chuop Paris, secretary of state at the Ministry of Environment, said the ministry is determined to move away from a linear "take-make-dispose" approach to waste and toward a circular model that treats resources as valuable, minimises waste and safeguards both public health and environmental quality.

He noted that through the Environmental Code and Natural Resources and the Environmental Circular Strategy 2023-2028 — particularly its "clean" pillar — the ministry continues to reinforce policies, regulations and legal frameworks, encourage greater accountability among producers and importers, foster innovation in recycling, resource recovery and reuse, and boost public awareness through campaigns and events.

Claude Gascon, the GEF's CEO and chairperson ad interim, said the GEM programme is helping countries confront one of the fastest-expanding sources of pollution.

"As the use of electronics continues to grow, its environmental impacts will become increasingly difficult to manage without effective systems," he said.

Gascon added that dealing with e-waste also calls for shifts in how markets function, alongside clearer policies and standards to encourage safer, more sustainable practices.

"This initiative is an important step towards building that foundation in Cambodia," he said.