Market Intelligence
Energy Storage Environmental Technology Thailand Exports Export Potential

Thailand Energy and Climate

Opportunity

The government seeks U.S. carbon-capture, smart grid, and energy storage technologies and solutions to achieve Thailand’s climate ambition.  Additional areas of opportunity include:

  • Renewable energy (solar, biomass, biogas, wind, hydrogen)
  • Waste management and incineration
  • Energy efficiency
  • Cement production
  • Reforestation

Please contact Suttharud.Liangwonnaporn@trade.gov to learn more about these opportunities. 

Climate Change Targets and Related Government Plans

Thailand is one of the Southeast Asian countries most affected by climate change.  The country faces increasingly deadly and damaging severe floods, droughts, and storms.   To address climate change, Thailand aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2065.

Thailand’s climate change targets were developed through a participatory process and formulated based on the following policies and plans:

  • Thailand’s NDC Roadmap (2021-2030)
    • This roadmap identifies mitigation measures in (1) the energy sector, including renewable electricity and energy efficiency; (2) the industrial processes and product use sector, such as the substitution of raw materials in cement production; and (3) the waste sector, such as waste management and waste incineration. 
  • 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan 2023-2027
    • The plan intends to transform the country in five areas: 
      1. narrowing income disparities and poverty reduction through innovation;
      2. creating a knowledge-based economy and value-added development; 
      3. human resource development to meet demand in a digital economy; 
      4. environmental conservation to deal with climate change, and 
      5. advanced preparations to deal with the changing global economic and social environment. 
  • Climate Change Master Plan 2015-2050
    • The master plan aims to drive Thailand towards sustainable development, low carbon growth, and climate change resilience by 2050.  It consists of three key strategies: (1) climate change adaptation, (2) mitigation and low carbon development, and (3) enabling environment on climate change management.
  • Power Development Plan 2018-2037
    • The plan aims to improve energy efficiency and enhance energy security in Thailand.  Thailand does not plan to issue new permits for coal-fired power plants and will instead focus on renewable energy sources: solar, biomass/biogas, and wind. Thailand seeks to reduce emissions through carbon capture, utilization, and storage.
  • Thailand Smart Grid Development Master Plan 2015-2036
    • The plan aims to deploy smart generation, dispatch, transmission, and grid solutions.
  • Energy Efficiency Plan 2018-2037
    • The plan aims to achieve a target of 30% energy intensity reduction by 2037.
  • Alternative Energy Development Plan 2018-2037
    • The plan aims to increase renewable power generation from 17 percent in 2019 to 30 percent of the total power mix in 2037.
  • Environmentally Sustainable Transport System Plan 2013-2030
    • This plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector from 20-25 percent to approximately 36 percent of Thailand’s NDC roadmap in 2030.
  • National Industrial Development Master Plan 2012-2031
    • This plan highlights four global sustainable development pillars for national industrial development.  Climate Change falls under the environmental wellness pillar, and the plan encourages reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, waste to energy, energy efficiency, and using biogas & biomass instead of oil fuels. 
  • Thailand Industrial Development Strategy 4.0 (2017-2036)
    • The strategy aims to promote smart industries and reduce carbon emissions and industrial waste.
  • 20-year Forest Strategic Plan (2017-2036)
    • This strategic plan aims to increase forest area by up to 40 percent through local community participation, particularly in upstream basin and mangrove forests.

New Climate Change Department

Currently, Thailand is establishing a new climate change department under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), with broader coordination powers, more staff, and an increased budget.  The new department will be responsive to implementing provisions of Thailand’s Climate Change Act (currently in draft form).

Although both the new department and act, as well as the selection of a new Minister of MONRE, are pending the formation of a new government following the May 14 election, leading political parties have expressed forward-leaning climate and clean energy policies.  The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) is confident that climate change will remain a national priority.

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