The construction of two coal-fired power plants in southern Thailand will be delayed by nine more months.
Energy Minister Siri Jirapongphun announced that the ministry will remove the environmental and health impact assessment (EHIA) from the Environmental Impact Evaluation Bureau's approval process.
Yesterday, Mr Siri signed an agreement with the main protesters of the projects. The protesters were demonstrating in front of the UN office in Bangkok.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), the developer and operator of the two projects, agreed to withdraw two EHIA reports by Thursday and to send an official report of the bureau's removal to the protesters.
After withdrawing the EHIA, Egat must conduct a strategic environmental assessment report to evaluate whether the two coal-fired power plants are appropriate for Krabi and Songkhla.
Egat agreed to conduct the report after it is approved by energy policymakers and protesters.
The assessment must be completed within nine months, after which a final decision on the project will be made.
An EHIA of the Krabi project was conducted in 2012. An EHIA of Songkhla was conducted in 2014, and construction of that project was expected to begin at the end of this year.
Mr Siri did not respond to a request for comment after signing the agreement yesterday.
In December of last year, Mr Siri decided to postpone the projects' start date by an additional three years, saying further study was needed to understand the impact on local communities.
The Krabi power plant's EHIA was finalised in early 2016 and was ready to receive an official construction start date from the government. Egat, however, was ordered to revise the EHIA in April 2016.
The Krabi plant will have a capacity of 800 megawatts and is scheduled to begin operations in 2025.
The other site is the 2,000MW Thepha power plant, which has yet to be assigned a construction start date.
The Thepha plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2024. EHIA approval is nearly finalised for the project.
Phanawat Pongprayoon, head of the pro-Egat group in the Thepha community, disagreed with the protesters and the signing of the agreement.
Mr Siri's move could have been undertaken without consulting other policymakers, Mr Phanawat said.
The projects' supporters far outnumber the protesters, he said, and the pro-Egat group may come to Bangkok to show its support for the project.