Bangkok, 31 January 2025 – The Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE) in collaboration with the Climate, Coastal, and Marine Biodiversity (CCMB) project, GIZ Thailand, officially launched the revision of Thailand’s Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP) with the first stakeholder consultation on the topic of Gender and Social Inclusive Climate Action.

The revision aims to discuss and gather in-depth perspectives from experts and meeting participants regarding the progress of climate change actions in Thailand, including problems, challenges, gaps and needs in improving both short-term and long-term strategies and measures under the Master Plan for effectively and efficiently addressing climate change issues. This also supports national strategic goals in driving Thailand towards sustainable development and a low carbon society and enables all sectors to be able to recover from climate change impacts (Inclusive Climate Resilience).

Presentation from expert team on “Climate Action in Thailand: Differential Impacts and Social Inclusion“

As vulnerable groups such as low-income earners, children and women, will be significantly more impacted by climate change, the highlight of the stakeholder consultation was on the group discussion on how to make climate mitigation, adaptation strategies and measures in CCMP more inclusive, actionable and incorporate protective measures for vulnerable groups. Participants from government agencies, academic institutions and civil society associations offered valuable insights on this topic.

Regarding adaptation measures, the key discussion addressed a more people-centered and area-based approach in CCMP and placed a strong emphasis on acting collaboratively across sectors as climate impacts usually impact people across sectors. Moreover, it was also noted that there is urgent need for the development of accessible and actionable climate impact data to be used by everyone, especially data on climate projections at the local community level.

Representatives from the Department of Climate Change and Environment (DCCE), CCMB Project, GIZ Thailand, and the expert consultant team (Dr Busakorn Suriyasarn and Dr Pawin Talerngsri).

In terms of mitigation measures, it was noted that not only the development of a policy structure and concrete measures for just transition, e.g., reducing the energy monopoly, is needed, but also the continuous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the mitigation policy and data available data to the public.

In addition, stakeholders recommended common strategic approaches on gender and social inclusivity from both adaptation and mitigation perspectives. The main concern was the inclusiveness of participation in the policy-making process, with participants suggesting that modes of participation should be more varied, flexible and appropriate for different target groups, including the consideration of technology application. The discussion also covered the significance of reviewing the laws and regulations that currently act as barriers to inclusive participation, just and equitable transition and inclusive climate financing

Group discussion on how to make climate mitigation, climate adaptation strategies and measures in CCMP more inclusive and actionable.

The revision of Thailand’s Climate Change Master Plan is expected to include at least 3 more stakeholder consultations on the topics of

1. Climate Finance
2. Climate Change Adaptation
3. Climate Change Mitigation

In addition, there will be public hearings to broaden input, with opinions sought from all sectors. The CCMB project will support DCCE in gathering and analysing information from the workshop to revise the Climate Change Master Plan 2015-2050 in the areas of mitigation, adaptation and enabling factors such as climate finance or social inclusivity. This covers aspects of operational efficiency, cross-sector cooperation, awareness raising, financial needs and personnel capacity development, which will be used to develop goals and measures under the Master Plan.

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