An event marking the successful implementation of the Thai Climate Change Policy at a subnational level through the Support to the Development and Implementation of the Thai Climate Change Policy (CCA) Project was held on 26 April 2017 by the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Dr. Raweewan Bhuridej, Secretary General of ONEP and H.E. Mr. Peter Prügel, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany presided over the closing event.

The CCA project was a collaboration between the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment through ONEP and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) through GIZ under the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project was implemented from 2014 to 2017 with the objective of supporting the Thai government in the development of a Climate Change Policy and its implementation at the national, provincial and local levels, which will in turn strengthen Thailand’s contributions to the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COPs).

In the implementation of the project, pilot regions comprising 17 provinces and 32 municipalities were selected across Thailand. Their representatives participated in the training courses on the development of climate change action plans in line with the context and development of each region. The course also covered analyzing and identifying measures to systematically develop and implement project plans consistent with the set goals. During the course of the training, historical and current climate data, forecast data and future climate variability were analysed for potential impacts and risks from climate change.

The project has implemented the following.

• Handbook on Climate Change Action Plan Development
  The Handbook covers information and the situation on greenhouse gases and climate change, Thailand Climate Change Master Plan 2015-2050, visions and prioritisation at national and subnational levels, data collection and analysis, stakeholder analysis, development of action plans, development of work plan and projects, budget resources, monitoring and evaluation.
• Provincial and Municipal Climate Change Action Plans
  The Action Plans covers the areas of Waste Resources Management, Agriculture and Food Security, Waste Management, Natural Resources Management at the Provincial Level and Waste Management, Urban Management, Human Settlement and Security, Transport at the Municipal level as well as energy consumption in buildings, industry, forestry, public health and tourism among others.

In the northeastern region, Sisaket Town Municipality aims to build green areas in the city at the ratio of 18 sqm per person. The projects supporting these goals include a tree planting project and the building of public parks. Public transport is poised to be further promoted while greenhouse gas emissions from land transportation is to be reduced, supported by a public transportation system development project and town system management promotion. With regard to settlements and human security, the province aims to generate maps illustrating the areas that are prone to climate change risk as well as a weather forecast and warning system for the agricultural sector and efficient natural disaster risk management to cover all risk areas. Furthermore, they are setting out to reduce deaths and costs of damages caused by natural disasters as well as to increase disease watch networks in disease-prone areas with the support of Dengue Fever control and prevention project.

The project plans to scale up the implementation to the other 60 provinces in the future.

Remarks: The goals and projects sampled in the articles are a part but not all of the actual plans. More details of the plans including plans of other pilot provinces can be found on www.thai-german-cooperation.info.