30 July 2024 – The Climate, Coastal, and Marine Biodiversity (CCMB) project, GIZ Thailand, in collaboration with the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE), organised a forum to obtain feedback on the results of a study on strengthening Thailand’s policies and industries to respond to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The purpose of the meeting was to enable relevant agencies to discuss and reflect the needs for an institutional arrangement and policy recommendations for the industrial sector to respond to the CBAM measures.

The European Union (EU) has set the “Fit to 55 Target” to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by at least 55% by 2030, compared to GHG emissions in 1990. The EU has launched several measures, namely the European Green Deal, to achieve its climate goals, deploying CBAM as an important instrument of these measures.

CBAM is a climate policy instrument designed to reinforce the EU’s climate efforts. CBAM applies the CBAM certificate and carbon pricing mechanism as tools to prevent the risk of carbon leakage. Currently, CBAM is in full compliance with the WTO trading international obligations. The measure will be implemented in a progressive manner within the transition period of 2023-2025 and will be fully enforced from 2030 onwards. CBAM’s initial pilot focuses on products with high carbon emissions in the production process from the first six industries, which are 1) Cement, 2) Electricity, 3) Fertilisers, 4) Hydrogen, 5) Iron and Steel, and 6) Aluminium, effective from October 2023. For Thailand, the pilot scope is on the low-carbon transition of Thailand’s highest impact industries of the six – Iron and Steel, and Aluminium, along with capacity building for key beneficiaries involved in the CBAM mechanism.

The meeting provided an opportunity for CBAM stakeholders to express their opinions and recommendations on the architecture of the institutional arrangement and the roadmap for Thailand.

Dr Phirun Saiyasitpanich, Director-General of the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE) underlined the importance of an institutional arrangement with a clear and specific role and responsibilities. He also pointed out that an effective roadmap for Thailand in response to the CBAM measure is needed to ensure that the Thai stakeholders are well prepared for the CBAM implementation.

This meeting showed that the CBAM stakeholders from the public and private sectors as well as civil society are aware of their roles and committed to the responsibilities for the EU-CBAM enforcement. The recommendations received from this meeting will be used in constructing a CBAM institutional arrangement in Thailand and the development of an effective CBAM roadmap to ensure the readiness of the targeted Thai industries. The CCMB project will serve as a bridge between DCCE and connect relevant agencies to develop policies and implement actions aligned with Thailand’s climate change policy framework, aiming to achieve Thailand’s decarbonisation goals of carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero emissions by 2065.

More information about the CCMB Project: https://www.thai-german-cooperation.info/en_US/climate-coastal-and-marine-biodiversity-ccmb/