He warned that extreme events are intensifying faster than policies can keep up. And without “rapid follow-through” the Act alone will not be sufficient to protect vulnerable communities.
The government has promised to strengthen its early-warning networks, improve water management and promote nature-based solutions.
Such investments are costly and becoming increasingly urgent. Analyses by climate finance bodies show that adaptation costs in developing countries are expected to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually by the 2030s.
“Building an effective legal framework also requires money to effectively enforce it, and we are seeing governments struggle to fund these initiatives,” said Kanika Sood, a lawyer at ClientEarth, an international non-profit environmental law organisation.
Thailand’s Climate Fund is meant to collect money from polluting industries to pay for clean energy investment, adaptation projects and greenhouse gas reduction programmes.
Yet there remain vagaries around who could access it or whether independent scientific monitoring would ensure funds are being adequately allocated and progress properly measured.
“There’s going to be a need for real clarity of who has access to this fund, who operates it, who has overall control over it,” said Jolene Lin, director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law at the National University of Singapore.
Implementation rules for the fund are pending secondary legislation. Critics said the proposed plan for the country overly prioritises business interests – with a focus on carbon markets and industry competitiveness – over justice and community protection.
“Where is the legislation to deal with these communities who are displaced by climate-related events? They are the vulnerable, marginalised communities, the poorest of the poor, farmers that have lost or will lose their livelihoods,” Lin said.
She added that the laws would be important, but a “real weakness” would remain if it does not have provisions to deal with the impacts on people.
There remain pressing concerns, especially from civil society, that the bill, as it stands, could become a framework that protects business interests more than vulnerable communities across Thailand.
The focus on carbon credit mechanisms generally carries a “high risk of greenwashing and delaying real climate action”, Anchalee said, unless there are clear rules, transparency and strong penalties for non-compliance, currently largely missing from the Act’s draft.
“While the concept of carbon markets is often promoted as a flexible tool for emissions reduction, in practice, they frequently allow major polluters to continue emitting,” she said.
The government’s priorities are reflected in the lack of representation for civil society in the review committees or involved in proper consultation on the laws, said Kritsada Boonchai, the coordinator of Thai Climate Justice for All, a network formed by NGOs, academics and community groups advocating for equitable climate action.
Instead, he argued, major polluters have been allowed to help set their own rules. He called for a more equitable and effective carbon market mechanism that prioritises emission reduction over offsetting.
Thailand’s Department of Climate Change and Environment did not respond to CNA’s interview request to address such concerns about the Act.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-climate-change-laws-flooding-5576136
