There is a strong consensus that human activities mainly contribute to global warming. Published on December 26, 2007
Scientists attribute global temperature rises to the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases in the atmosphere. These are by-products of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources. In 2004, the Kyoto Protocol was the first international agreement towards controlling these "greenhouse gases".
Among the impacts of global warming in Asia: many Asian glaciers may soon disappear, permafrost is thawing, and bad droughts are affecting many countries. Rapid population growth and development will result in the release of more greenhouse gases. Climate change has been reported to have the potential to dramatically slash yields of rice - the staple food for most Asians. The links between global warming and human diseases are also becoming clearer.
Thais are increasingly aware of global warming, with flash floods in Uttaradit and other northern provinces, reef bleaching in the Andaman Sea, and unusual weather patterns elsewhere. A serious adverse impact could be on rice, farmed by 3.6 million families and the country's largest export. Rising sea levels caused by melting ice and warming oceans could also hit Thailand's coastal farms, with increased salt levels in the soil making them less productive. Many archaeological sites that have withstood centuries of wars and natural disasters might not survive the impacts of global warming.
The major sources of Thailand's emissions arise from changing land-use patterns and increased energy consumption. Deforestation has led to a drastic drop in the amount of carbon stored in standing biomass and soils. Thailand lost forest area rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s - about 3 per cent annually. Fortunately, the trend shows a slower rate of deforestation, partly due to a 1988logging ban. Rice farming has also been linked to global warming through methane production. However, the main source of greenhouse gas emissions is in energy conversion and consumption processes by the industrial, power, and transportation sectors.
The Thai government has announced a commitment to participate in international climate-change forums. Thailand has been a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. It also participated in the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as other international meetings.
Concerning intermediate-term planning to tackle global warming and climate change, as well as to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has drafted national strategies and guidelines. The draft of Thailand's Five-Year Strategies on Climate Change (2008-2012) outlines measures that would need to be undertaken by various agencies, which include:
- Building capacity to adapt and reduce vulnerability to climate-change impacts;
- Promoting greenhouse-gas mitigation activities based on sustainable development;
- Supporting research and development to better understand climate change, its impacts, and adaptation and mitigation options;
- Raising awareness and promoting public participation;
- Building capacity of relevant personnel and institutions and establishing a framework of coordination and integration; and
- Supporting international cooperation to achieve the goal of climate-change mitigation and sustainable development.
The government has planned strategies and measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while not disrupting the country's energy system. This will ensure a sufficient supply of electricity to achieve target growth, while keeping the level of emissions low. These include immediate action to accelerate the implementation of energy conservation programmes, and measures to switch energy consumption strategies to different fuel mixes, basically toward extensive use of natural gas and imported hydroelectric power. As an advanced developing country, Thailand is suitable as a hub for technology transfer and research to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming on developing countries in general.
The government has also established the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Organisation, to deal specifically with the clean development mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. Thailand has already approved 16 biomass, biogas and landfill-gas projects. Our approach for emission reduction focuses on the energy sector.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has also been conducting activities to reduce global warming. Bangkok is a major source of greenhouse gasses, with 30 to 50 per cent of total energy consumption concentrated in the city. As a small but significant gesture, the BMA has launched a campaign to promote the use of cloth instead of plastic bags. If the use of plastic bags is reduced, about one million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted in Bangkok would be cut per year.
On World Environmental Day this year, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont gave a speech entitled "Stop Global Warming through Sufficiency Lifestyle". The prime minister said that, from the development perspective, climate change is partly the result of the faulty vision of development which focuses on exploitation of nature but ignores the environment. Thailand has since adopted the practice of sufficiency economy, as advised by His Majesty the King, as a main pillar of government policy. Along with a competitive economy with the private sector as the main engine, sufficiency economy provides a middle path for social and economic development based on moderation in lifestyle and sustainability of natural resources and the environment. The principles of sufficiency economy can be applied effectively to the issues of climate change and global warming.
It is late, but not too late, to reverse the harmful trends that affect the environment. Action taken by the international community to try to reduce the hole in the ozone layer has been successful, with the gradual phasing out of ozone-damaging chemicals.
Similar international collaboration can prevent or even reverse the rapid onset of global warming. However, the overall problems are grim and of such unprecedented proportions that they will need concerted action over a long time - in the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, in energy conservation, and in the use of alternative energy sources. These are just some of the actions that will need to be taken rapidly, on a large scale worldwide, in order to successfully meet the challenges of climate change.
Adapted from the Inaugural Address at the Nation Conference, November 23, 2007, Inter-Continental Hotel, Bangkok.
Yongyuth Yuthavong is minister of Science and Technology and acting minister of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Yongyuth Yuthavong
The Nation
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Scientists attribute global temperature rises to the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases in the atmosphere. These are by-products of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources. In 2004, the Kyoto Protocol was the first international agreement towards controlling these "greenhouse gases".
Among the impacts of global warming in Asia: many Asian glaciers may soon disappear, permafrost is thawing, and bad droughts are affecting many countries. Rapid population growth and development will result in the release of more greenhouse gases. Climate change has been reported to have the potential to dramatically slash yields of rice - the staple food for most Asians. The links between global warming and human diseases are also becoming clearer.
Thais are increasingly aware of global warming, with flash floods in Uttaradit and other northern provinces, reef bleaching in the Andaman Sea, and unusual weather patterns elsewhere. A serious adverse impact could be on rice, farmed by 3.6 million families and the country's largest export. Rising sea levels caused by melting ice and warming oceans could also hit Thailand's coastal farms, with increased salt levels in the soil making them less productive. Many archaeological sites that have withstood centuries of wars and natural disasters might not survive the impacts of global warming.
The major sources of Thailand's emissions arise from changing land-use patterns and increased energy consumption. Deforestation has led to a drastic drop in the amount of carbon stored in standing biomass and soils. Thailand lost forest area rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s - about 3 per cent annually. Fortunately, the trend shows a slower rate of deforestation, partly due to a 1988logging ban. Rice farming has also been linked to global warming through methane production. However, the main source of greenhouse gas emissions is in energy conversion and consumption processes by the industrial, power, and transportation sectors.
The Thai government has announced a commitment to participate in international climate-change forums. Thailand has been a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. It also participated in the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as other international meetings.
Concerning intermediate-term planning to tackle global warming and climate change, as well as to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has drafted national strategies and guidelines. The draft of Thailand's Five-Year Strategies on Climate Change (2008-2012) outlines measures that would need to be undertaken by various agencies, which include:
- Building capacity to adapt and reduce vulnerability to climate-change impacts;
- Promoting greenhouse-gas mitigation activities based on sustainable development;
- Supporting research and development to better understand climate change, its impacts, and adaptation and mitigation options;
- Raising awareness and promoting public participation;
- Building capacity of relevant personnel and institutions and establishing a framework of coordination and integration; and
- Supporting international cooperation to achieve the goal of climate-change mitigation and sustainable development.
The government has planned strategies and measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while not disrupting the country's energy system. This will ensure a sufficient supply of electricity to achieve target growth, while keeping the level of emissions low. These include immediate action to accelerate the implementation of energy conservation programmes, and measures to switch energy consumption strategies to different fuel mixes, basically toward extensive use of natural gas and imported hydroelectric power. As an advanced developing country, Thailand is suitable as a hub for technology transfer and research to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming on developing countries in general.
The government has also established the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Organisation, to deal specifically with the clean development mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. Thailand has already approved 16 biomass, biogas and landfill-gas projects. Our approach for emission reduction focuses on the energy sector.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has also been conducting activities to reduce global warming. Bangkok is a major source of greenhouse gasses, with 30 to 50 per cent of total energy consumption concentrated in the city. As a small but significant gesture, the BMA has launched a campaign to promote the use of cloth instead of plastic bags. If the use of plastic bags is reduced, about one million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted in Bangkok would be cut per year.
On World Environmental Day this year, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont gave a speech entitled "Stop Global Warming through Sufficiency Lifestyle". The prime minister said that, from the development perspective, climate change is partly the result of the faulty vision of development which focuses on exploitation of nature but ignores the environment. Thailand has since adopted the practice of sufficiency economy, as advised by His Majesty the King, as a main pillar of government policy. Along with a competitive economy with the private sector as the main engine, sufficiency economy provides a middle path for social and economic development based on moderation in lifestyle and sustainability of natural resources and the environment. The principles of sufficiency economy can be applied effectively to the issues of climate change and global warming.
It is late, but not too late, to reverse the harmful trends that affect the environment. Action taken by the international community to try to reduce the hole in the ozone layer has been successful, with the gradual phasing out of ozone-damaging chemicals.
Similar international collaboration can prevent or even reverse the rapid onset of global warming. However, the overall problems are grim and of such unprecedented proportions that they will need concerted action over a long time - in the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, in energy conservation, and in the use of alternative energy sources. These are just some of the actions that will need to be taken rapidly, on a large scale worldwide, in order to successfully meet the challenges of climate change.
Adapted from the Inaugural Address at the Nation Conference, November 23, 2007, Inter-Continental Hotel, Bangkok.
Yongyuth Yuthavong is minister of Science and Technology and acting minister of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Yongyuth Yuthavong
The Nation
Discuss
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Tell a friend
Bury
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