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Tackling Climate Change with Innovations: Key Lessons from Thailand
- BRANDi
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Climate and sustainability have recently been among the Thai government's highest priorities. According to the country's 2023-2027 National Economic and Social Development Plan, Thailand aims to promote environmental conservation, increase preparations to deal with the changing global environment, and create a knowledge base to tackle the issue. This was one of the Thai Pavilion at COP29's focuses, with the session "Thailand's Climate Commitment: Leveraging Innovative Blue Carbon, Carbon Capture Storage, Air Pollution Mitigation, and Beyond Banking for a Greener Future" showcasing the country's commitment. There, experts presented Thailand's multi-pronged approach to achieving its climate goals, focusing on leveraging cutting-edge technologies and financial innovation. Panelists, consisting of professors and researchers, shed light on the importance of integrating blue carbon ecosystems, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and industrial pollution mitigation to create a sustainable pathway for decarbonization efforts that any nation can apply.
WHY CLIMATE COMMITMENTS ARE SO CHALLENGING TO UPHOLD?
Thailand faces numerous challenges in its climate journey, including addressing emissions from its industrial sector and managing its air pollution crisis. According to the US National Institute of Health, Thailand’s emissions (in 2020) were five times higher than the World Health Organization’s guideline. Panelists maintained that air quality in industrial estates remains a persistent issue, affecting public health and economic productivity. Still, before the turn of the decade, the country had not discussed sustainability and environmental conservation enough, with many serious efforts being made in the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the blue carbon ecosystems, such as mangroves and seagrass, are under pressure from coastal development, reducing their capacity to act as natural carbon sinks—as there were few concrete protection mechanisms to push back against deforestation. Furthermore, while promising, CCS technologies require substantial investment and regulatory support to scale effectively—the support that did not come quickly and efficiently. Through these challenges, cohesive policies and cross-sector collaboration can ensure climate action can be effective and inclusive.
TACKLING CLIMATE ISSUES THROUGH FINANCIAL AND INNOVATIVE APPROACHES
Thailand is using innovative approaches to tackle these challenges, with the panelists detailing advancements in blue carbon research, particularly efforts to restore and conserve mangrove forests as vital carbon sinks and biodiversity hubs. The potential of CCS technologies was also discussed, with researchers outlining several pilot projects in the country’s hotspots to capture emissions from Thailand’s energy-intensive industries. Examples include a pilot project from PTT, the country’s largest energy company, to install a CCS unit on its largest offshore oil rig, which is expected to reduce emissions by 1 million tons annually, as well as a joint study between the same company and the Japanese government. The latter aims to amplify the impacts of CCS in Thailand and create more opportunities for the installation of that technology in other areas, such as coal plants. Apart from that, many Thai financial institutions have been instrumental in ushering in many positive shifts through direct funding and a credit scoring system incorporating sustainability scoring in potential borrowers.
Thailand’s approach to climate action, as highlighted at COP29, stresses the importance of integrating innovative technologies, ecosystem conservation, and financial solutions. The case study on sustainable financing further illustrated how private-sector involvement can amplify the impact of public policies. As the session emphasized, achieving a greener future requires collaboration across academia, industry, and finance. This is a commitment that Thailand strives to fulfill through science-driven and financially innovative strategies, which steadily but surely accelerate the country toward being the regional leader in renewables. The lesson learned here can be adopted by any country or, at the very least, inspire skeptics that changes are indeed possible.
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