The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Cambodia, under its “Climate Promise” project, has published the Climate Dictionary to enhance greater understanding of climate change trends among youths.

The newly published dictionary is now available in Khmer and English. Its authors hope that it will become a tool to assist individuals who may still struggle to comprehend the meaning of climate change.

The Climate Dictionary aims to provide a daily guide to understanding climate change and bridging the gap between complicated scientific language and the general public to make climate concepts approachable and relatable to people of all backgrounds and levels of expertise.

“The concept is driven by the belief that empowering people with knowledge is crucial in fostering action and collective responsibility towards addressing climate change,” said the UNDP’s press release.

“By utilising a creative combination of compelling visuals, concise explanations, and engaging storytelling, The Climate Dictionary effectively communicates complex climate concepts in a user-friendly and visually captivating manner,” it added.

Chou Phanith, an environmental economist, said yesterday that the technical words still remain a big challenge and barrier for people to keep up with and understand the climate change issue.

“Knowledge of climate change’s key terms still remains a big challenge for all related issues, including economic, environmental and climate change,” said Phanith. “Without a dictionary, many of them may not be able to understand the context of climate change.”

He added that the dictionary, with its clear and simple explanations, will serve as a tool for people to deepen their awareness and enhance their involvement in climate change prevention and reduction.

Ream Sreypich Ratana, Secretary General of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), said that language barriers have held a number of people back from getting involved in combatting climate change.

“I think it plays a role in people hesitating to get involved. They can’t take action when they don’t understand the issues,” she said. “I’ve also noticed that people are not encouraged to take action to reduce climate change, even on a daily basis, such as (reducing) plastic use and so on.”

In addition to publishing its Climate Dictionary, UNDP Cambodia has also called for the involvement of 200 enthusiastic youths to join the upcoming Local Youth Conference (LCOY) Cambodia 2024 to discuss climate change.

LCOY is a critical platform for localising the climate conversation, empowering youth, and integrating their insights into national and global climate strategies, according to UNDP, which provides support to help countries take bold action to reduce their emissions, increase their resilience to climate impacts and support sustainable development priorities.

This support covers a range of key technical areas, including enhancing political will and ownership across society, strengthening targets and aligning with key national policies, assessing costs and investment opportunities, as well as setting up the systems for monitoring and reporting on progress.