On 7 July 2025, the Thai Climate Initiative (ThaiCI) Project, led by GIZ, in collaboration with the Environmental Fund Division (EFD) under the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), organised a meeting: ‘Pathways for the ThaiCI Fund towards Green Finance Mechanism and Ecosystem’. This meeting invited representatives from the Bank of Thailand (BoT), the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE), Thailand Travel Authority (TTA) and the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP) to discuss pathways for ThaiCI to support green finance initiatives to boost transformation towards Thailand’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and energy goals in the private sector.

Jiravat Ratisoontorn, Deputy Director of ONEP

In his opening remarks, Jiravat Ratisoontorn, Deputy Director of ONEP, addressed the ongoing progress of ThaiCI as a funding mechanism to support climate action projects in ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors to support Thailand’s climate and carbon neutrality goals. Highlighting challenges in terms of policy and economic development in different sectors, he encouraged the participants to exchange insights and discuss further strategic steps for green finance activities in collaboration with ThaiCI.

Dr Jittinun Ruengverayudh, Director of Environmental Fund Administration Division, introduced an overview of the ThaiCI fund to the meeting. Her presentation showcased the fund’s ongoing work to support projects in key decarbonisation sectors including the hotel sector, the food and beverage sector and the iron and steel sector.

Representatives from each agency presented their insights and exchanged views on current green finance initiatives, policies, challenges and opportunities to support low-carbon transitioning and decarbonisation in Thailand’s private sector. Chananun Supadulya, Director of Financial Institutions Strategy Department, BoT, started by presenting the BoT’s strategy in promoting ‘brown-to-less-brown’ industries in Thailand via climate finance initiatives and interventions by the financial sector. As for DCCE, Dr Napaporn Tangthinthai, Director of the Climate Finance and Investment Division, also regarded the meeting as a good entry point for the BoT to explore and engage with other key agencies in advancing the country’s green finance ecosystem.

Dr Napaporn mentioned the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) 3.0 under the Paris Agreement and adaptation projects at the centre of Thailand’s efforts towards decarbonisation and energy transition. In this regard, the DCCE underscored the critical role of green finance in fund seeding for mitigation and adaptation in the ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors. She also highlighted the ThaiCI fund as well as the new Thailand Taxonomy 2.0 as high potential instruments and solutions.

Akkarawit Taphasit, Executive Director Tourism Investment Promotion Department of the TAT, shared the CF-Hotels.com website as a database platform that collects, processes and showcases GHG reduction and carbon footprints from participating hotels via self-declaration. Challenges for mitigation in the hotel and tourism sector include the difficulty for small and medium businesses to scale up to the demands of increased investment, lack of awareness and understanding, changes in personnel responsible for processes involved, and misalignment between the public and private sectors.

Finally, Supree Terapat, Chief of Macroeconomic Policy and Planning Division from OSMEP, spoke about challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses in adhering to green finance measures and criteria, highlighting high investment costs and lack of solution variations for transition impact among key issues that needed to be addressed.

Pimkarn Kittiyavong, ThaiCI Project Manager from GIZ Thailand, moderated throughout the meeting and provided project information. Further discussions in the meeting also touched upon potential solutions and opportunities to align different green finance activities implemented by each agency – especially in the hotel sector and the food and beverage sector.

Pimkarn Kattiyavong, Thai Climate Initiative (ThaiCI) Project Manager

This meeting was organised as part of the ThaiCI Project under the Thai-German Cooperation on Energy, Mobility, and Climate Programme (TGC EMC). The ThaiCI Fund serves as a financial mechanism to support climate protection in Thailand. Its primary focus is to provide financial support for climate mitigation and adaptation projects, enhance the operational capacity of the Environmental Fund, and strengthen the capabilities of climate project implementers.