Thailand needs more efforts to access financial aid to fight climate change, according to the chief of the Department of Climate Change and Environment.
Phirun: Law needed, higher targets
Phirun Saiyasitpanich said the kingdom should prepare for efforts to access the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), a project funded by developed countries to help poor or developing countries suffering from climate change.
He said during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan last month that world leaders had agreed with a proposal calling on developed countries to deliver at least US$300 billion per year to developing countries by 2035. This is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect lives and livelihoods from the worsening impacts of climate change.
It is higher than the current financial pledge target of $100 billion per year by 2025.
Mr Phirun said Thailand should take this opportunity to draw attention by creating "challenging targets" according to the Paris Agreement to limit an increase in the world's temperature to less than 1.5C.
"Without a solid goal, it is very difficult for Thailand to access the new fund," he said.
The country will need to submit to the UN next year a revised target to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for 2035, a major step in expressing its strong efforts to combat climate change, he added.
Mr Phirun said Thailand needs to have a climate change law as a key step toward achieving those goals. Importantly, it would create a concrete way to access the global climate change fund due to more concrete and effective measures and policies, he noted.
This would include legally binding measures and policies, as well as other financial mechanisms to pave the way for successful results, he said.
"Malaysia will pass a climate change bill, demonstrating its strong ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the chief of the Department of Climate Change and Environment said at an event marking Thai Environment Day on Wednesday.
"This allowed it to access those funds readily. We hope that all stakeholders in Thailand will fully support a climate change bill, which will be submitted to the cabinet next month," he said.
"Without our strong affirmation that we will fight against climate change, we will not be able to access the financial sources for which the competition is very high. We hope that all stakeholders will help us move forward to become a low-carbon society, a society with immunity against climate change and a sustainable future."
At COP 29, Thailand committed to moving ahead with its National Determined Contributions (NDCs), or NDC 3.0, by reducing 270 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
The plan focuses on making its industrial sectors greener.