Environmentalists believe Thailand will struggle to reach a targeted 7% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) by 2020 if more coal-fired power plants are built.
They say the Thai government will announce the planned GGE reduction at the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Kyoto Protocol. The meeting takes place Dec 1-12 in Lima, Peru.
The 2020 GGE reduction target is under the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions' (Nama) pledge in the Kyoto Protocol designed for developing nations to set their own goals to limit GGEs.
Speaking yesterday at a press briefing on "Clean Coal and Climate Change — A Way for Thailand's Secure Power" organised by the Environment Reporters Club, Faikham Hannarong, representative of the Thai Climate Justice Working Group, said policies for Thailand's power development plan and GGE reduction are contradictory.
Ms Faikham said the government is focusing on generating power by increasing coal use, which she views as one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions.
"If the government wants to build coal-fired power plants, how can we reduce the number of unhealthy gas emissions into the air?'' she said, saying there is no effective technology to filter out the carbon and it will be a challenge for Thailand to achieve the 7% GGE reduction by 2020.
She said coal is not a clean substance as claimed by many coal power plant supporters, and it badly affects the environments of locals living near coal-mining sites.
Moreover, the power generation process has released high levels of sulphur dioxide, ash and heavy metals, she said.
The power development plan (PDP) 2012-2030 calls for producing 4,400 megawatts of high-grade coal plants, increasing coal plants' share of all types of energy production from the current 9% to 12% by 2030.
The government plans to build an 800-megawatt coal plant in Krabi and another 2,000-megawatt coal plant in Songkhla, according to the plan.
Santi Choakchaichamnankit, director of Energy Watch, said there is always a hidden agenda in power development issues.