Chartthaipattana will make Thailand the region’s carbon credit trading centre
Chartthaipattana Party leader Warawut Silpa-archa on Wednesday unveiled his party’s strategy to turn Thailand into the Asia Pacific region’s carbon-credit trading centre – a plan it calls “From Thai Environment to Global Environment”.
It is part of the party’s "Wow Thailand '' strategy, which aims to achieve wealth, opportunity, and welfare for all.
The party's vision aligns with the United Nations General Assembly's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and its ultimate aim is to build a sustainable country for future generations.
This includes a commitment to move towards carbon neutrality, or net zero, by 2050, a goal that Thailand committed to at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland in 2021 and at the COP27 conference in Egypt in 2022.
The party aims to achieve a high quality of life for all, while working towards sustainable development and protecting the environment.
Warawut is committed to establishing a carbon credit center in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. The trading centre will establish standards for measuring and evaluating carbon emissions, certification of audit results, and development of carbon-credit technology.
The center will also facilitate the creation of a buy-sell market for carbon credits and encourage research and development in the Asean region, with Thailand at the forefront.
The announcement by the Chartthaipattana Party marks a significant milestone in Thailand's commitment to carbon neutrality and sustainable development.
Prof Kanok Wongtrangan, secretary of the party’s policy and strategy committee, said 372 tonnes of greenhouse gasses were emitted in Thailand in 2019. Net absorption was 92 million tonnes and net emissions were 280 million tonnes, he said. Of the latter, 56.8 million tonnes, or 15%, came from the agricultural sector. In particular, rice cultivation generated 28.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions – 50% of agricultural emissions.
The Chartthaipattana Party will accelerate the expansion of carbon net measurements that are standardised, fast, and accurate, Kanok said. They will cover the entire country, determine the location of agricultural plots, and check each plot against the standard of its group. The plots will be divided into economic crops – rubber, oil palm, rice, perennial fruit trees – and different types of forests and carbon in the soil.
This strategy has already been implemented in Suphan Buri province, where a group of farmers with 5,000 rai of land between them are earning 500 baht a year per rai – 2,500,000 baht in total per year – from a foreign company buying carbon credits.
The Chartthaipattana Party also presented guidelines for sustainable forest-fire management by modeling repetitive forest fires. This will establish protection standards and develop guidelines for managing carbon credits by allowing people, and communities, to participate in solving problems and benefit from carbon credits. The credits may also help reduce the PM2.5 crisis.
The Chartthaipattana Party will also set up an Excellence Center for carbon credits in the Asia Pacific region. It will evaluate and elevate carbon net standards through academic cooperation and field practice within the region. This will help make carbon-credit research and development plans address inequality and create sustainability. It will also lead to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and can amend rules for the use of carbon credits for trade barriers that create injustice for developing countries.
Asst Prof Santi Kiranand, a member of the party’s policy and strategy committee, said a greenhouse gas measurement station – or a micro-meteorological measurement station – will collect detailed information on the area and ownership of individual carbon credits. The data can be used to create a carbon-credit token and blockchain technology can be used to store data so that the token can be used as a trading asset with a value that is internationally accepted.
Warawut concluded that every part of the "Wow Thailand" policy includes input from the grassroots. The policy was developed by ministers, members of the House of Representatives, and all party members who work closely with people in their constituencies. They are carefully attuned to the hardships and needs of Thai people in every province. As a result, they can develop a policy that works.
Chartthaipattana Party's policies focus on creating sustainability, social welfare, and a better quality of life for future generations of Thai people. Although the policies are not as populist as those of other political parties, they are designed to achieve a high quality of life for all, while working towards sustainable development and environmental protection.
