วันจันทร์ที่ 8 สิงหาคม 2565
PM: Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC) will be springboard for accomplishment of Thailand’s net-zero greenhouse gas emission
PM: Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC) will be springboard for accomplishment of Thailand’s net-zero greenhouse gas emission towards balanced, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly growth
August 5, 2022, at 1010hrs, at the Royal Paragon Hall, Siam Paragon, Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha presided over and deliver a keynote speech at Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC), organized by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment under the theme: “Our Future: Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity”. Government Spokesperson Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana disclosed gist of the Prime Minister’s keynote speech as follows:
The Prime Minister expressed pleasure to preside over the opening ceremony of the Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC) to underscore the Thai Government’s strong commitment in addressing climate change and driving forward Thailand effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2065.
According to the Prime Minister, it is evident that the current climate change has causes increasingly severe impacts on all region of the world. Throughout the past decade, human activities have been the main contributors of the increase in global average surface temperature by approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial level.
The global community has to accelerate more enhanced climate actions to be able to control the global temperature increase. This increase in global temperature has resulted in crises in the agriculture and fisheries sector for many nations. The severity of the situation may lead to food shortage, drought, more extreme weather events and disasters. Climate change has been classified by World Economic Forum (WEF) which will affect the global macroeconomy.
In the past year, the global community has made effort to strengthen its response to climate change, through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs, the Paris Agreement to limit the increase in global temperature to below two degrees Celsius and make best efforts to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. To achieve these goals, the overall global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 level, and global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions must be achieved by 2050, along with building capacity and balancing support between climate change mitigation and adaptation in a balanced manner.
Thailand is not immune to the constant and unpredictable impacts of climate change. Sudden onset events such as floods and droughts and slow onset events such as sea-level rise and change in levels of precipitation have widely affected the livelihoods of people in the century. In 2021, Thailand was ranked ninth most affected country in the world by long-term impacts of climate change. This has costed our economy and society trillion of Baht in loss over the past two decades. Therefore, Thailand must make every effort to vigorously prepare the multidimensional impacts of climate change.
Prime minister has placed great importance on tackling climate change and has set clear development directions to sustainability for all relevant sectors in accordance with Thailand’s 20-year national strategy, master plan, and national economic and social development plan towards environmentally-friendly and climate-friendly growth, comprising three main pillars: (1) long-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction consistent with economic, social and environmental development, (2) climate change adaptation, and (3) promote climate-friendly investment in public and private infrastructure development and economic incentivization for relevant sectors. All of these efforts will play a crucial role in achieving Thailand’s intention declared under UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).
For our economy, Thailand is actively advancing the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy model to support balanced and sustainable development, leading to environmental- friendly businesses. The Government has initiated green financing instruments to drive forward investments in green innovations and green businesses. In addition, the Government has transformed the Thai economy and its critical infrastructures, including transforming Thailand’s electricity generation by increasing the proportion of renewable energy, promoting the domestic electric vehicle industry, promoting Thailand as a world-class EV manufacturing base, together with supporting a low carbon transition of the Thai industries and businesses. For the private sector, the paradigm shift towards low carbon production and consumption provides business opportunities to enable sustainable and environmentally friendly growth for the Thai private sector. The Prime Minister expressed pleasure that Thailand now begins to witness a real change in many business organizations, placing emphasis and collaborating on adopting the carbon footprint, phasing down and phasing out of the ozone depleting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in cooling and refrigeration industry, and promoting uses of hydraulic cement in construction and concrete mix.
BCG Economy will lead to sustainable development that creates added value from biological resources, optimizes the 3R principle, and improves the quality of life of people, while sustaining the environment. At the same time, knowledge of science, technology and innovation are key to development that leaves no one behind. This is in line with Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) which provides a path to sustainable development that helps increase value of the economy and lessens the current use of resources.
Equally important, the Government aims to increase all types of green areas to 55% by 2037, which would create balance in carbon capture and increase the overall integrity and richness of the country’s natural resources and ecosystem, benefitting quality of life. This year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has successfully achieved the goal of the project “Reunite Thais, Plant 100 million trees” together” as part of the celebration of His Majesty the King on the auspicious occasion of the coronation. The ministry has also set up incentives to encourage private sector to participate in forest conservation and restoration projects to help with greenhouse gas reabsorption.
The Prime Minister emphasized that climate change is not a distant issue, but a crisis that concerns all. Every individual and every sector must work for concrete and systemic change. The agencies concern have developed their master plans and actions plans on various sectors, as well as translated policy into action on the grounds both at the provincial and local levels. They have also harnessed the strengths of local knowledge and wisdoms, as well as natural resources to respond to the various challenges that are emerging.
Thailand still needs to accelerate its development of advanced and modern technologies and innovation, build human resources capacities by collaborating with various nations to efficiently address the climate challenges, resulting in the achievement of the 2050 carbon neutrality and 2065 net-zero GHG emission targets. The achievement of quantitative targets is just an indicative number. The real meaningful result lies in sustainable development for better quality of life in every aspect of all Thais in the present and future generations. Moreover, the achievement will demonstrate Thailand’s roles and responsibilities to join in the global agenda to tackle the important challenge.
In closing, the Prime Minister thank everybody, all agencies and stakeholders, for their commitment to contribute to the better global climate, and affirmed Thailand’s readiness to share these global responsibilities to hand over this world to the children and grandchildren. Thailand cannot succeed, without continued partnership, cooperation and support on climate change from the country’s long-term partner countries. He also commended Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for spearheading the organization of this inaugural Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC) which will be the springboard for the empowerment of the accomplishment of Thailand’s net-zero greenhouse gas emission towards a balanced, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly growth.
Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC), organized by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, will be held during August 5-6, 2022 at the Royal Paragon Hall, Siam Paragon, to empower Thailand’s climate actions through the collaboration and participation of concerned sectors, including the local sector. TCAC is modeled after the United Nations Climate Change Conference or “COP” with a smaller scale to target every province of Thailand. The aim is to build awareness of the target groups through discussions and exhibitions on the issue of climate change in various dimensions.