Can we really change our consumption habits?

According to the report, by 2035, if we continue to use energy the way we do today, industry will account for 32.5 per cent of energy demand, followed by other sectors (including residential, commercial, agriculture and fisheries) at 27 per cent, transport at 21.9 per cent and non-energy use (mainly renewable) at 18.6 per cent.

The report points out that this structure is unlikely to change over the outlook period, although industry and other sectors will encroach slightly upon the share of the transport and non-energy sectors up to 2035.

It is beyond imagination what the ratio of annual energy imports will be. The figure now exceeds Bt1 trillion, or about 9 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). If we use energy at the same rate we do today, the import value could certainly more than double as our GDP grows.

It is also beyond imagination how Thais can reduce energy demand. In industry, more companies, especially Japanese, are moving some operations to Thailand. The upcoming Asean Economic Community (AEC) will only speed up the rate of that expansion.

Despite complaints about traffic congestion, many people still want their own car. They can’t park their vehicles to hop on a public transport service.

Consumers fall prey to advertisements for new electrical products that tell everything about capacity but nothing about energy-saving features?

In all our cities, big retail brands are present, and even more outlets are planned. Millions of consumers spend weekends at air-conditioned shopping malls. It’s become a part of our lives to shop and eat at malls. How many people are concerned about the carbon emissions associated with their consumption? Many people who have seen the documentary film “An Inconveneient Truth” were concerned and inspired, but afterwards most of them went on with their lives in the same way as before.

There are numerous campaigns across the world to convince people to change their consumption habits. One of them is the Environmental Media Association (EMA), a non-profit organisation dedicated to harnessing the power of the entertainment industry and the media to educate the global public on environmental issues and sustainable lifestyles. EMA Awards were initiated 23 years ago, to honour those in the media and entertainment who promote and convey environmental messages in the most creative and influential ways. 

One of the winners this year is “Promised Land”, a film starring Matt Damon, which examines “fracking” technology – a method for extracting oil from rock.

But will this help?

In its debut weekend, the film took in less than US$5 million. It was considered a flop. Damon, playing a man who promises a town prosperity if it accepts shale gas fracking, is anti-fracking. Should we watch him, bragging about the life-changing benefits of fracking?

The award for this film indicates how desperate the world is to find good causes to draw public participation in combating climate change. 

Few of us realise that ocean temperatures are rising. Seventy-five metres down, the temperature has risen by 0.1 degree Celcius over the past 40 years. 

How many of us know that the oceans cover seven-tenths of the Earth’s surface and that they are a “sink” that has absorbed 90 per cent of the extra warming over the past four decades? How many people know that changes in ocean temperature help quicken the pace of the El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena, which result in extremes of drought and rain?

These things are beyond the understanding of many consumers. 

In Thailand we suffered from the 2011 floods and many in the eastern provinces have suffered the same again this year. But it seems that people will continue to live their lives in the usual way, and companies will operate on a business-as-usual basis. People will agree to pay more for what they want, regardless of impact. As sales grow, companies will be able to afford the higher price of energy. 

In the face of all this, more reports, like that of the ADB, are necessary, as a form of reckoning.