The Transport and Climate Change (TCC) project together with the Office of Transport the Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) organised the workshop “MRV Stakeholder Workshop”. The objectives of this workshop were to 1) create common understanding of Measurement Report and Verification (MRV) for the transport sector among stakeholders, and 2) gather feedback and comments on the MRV report from relevant organisations.

Mr. Chaitwat Thongkhamkhun, Deputy Director General of OTP opened the event by emphasising Thailand’s need to monitor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in the transport sector as part of its international commitment to reduce GHG emissions by 20-25% by 2030. This workshop attracted more than 60 participants across 20 organisations, including the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Environment, as well as other related organisations.

The workshop began by the TCC project detailing its scope of work relevant to MRV system by Mr. Tali Trigg, the Team Leader of the TCC project. Then, Mr. Papondhanai Nanthachatchavankul, the Regional Coordinator of the TCC project, provided further background of the MRV system and Dr. Natachai Wongchavalidkul, the invited speaker and consultant for the TCC project, explained the technical knowledge of MRV system as well as the data gap analysis of the transport sector in Thailand.

Finally, Mr. Stefan Bakker, an international consultant for TCC, shared his experience of the development of transport MRV from other countries by highlighting that both top-down and bottom-up approaches are equally important for the MRV system for the transport sector. By cross-checking with each other, the top-down approach provides the overall picture of the transport sector by collecting fuel consumption, while the bottom-up approach addresses detailed transport activities.

Participants continued by actively discussing and brainstorming their opinions on how to improve data exchange among ministries/organisations. The most common issue raised was that there should be a host entity as a centre for transport data collection to gather data/information from all stakeholders. They also provided feedback on the MRV report conducted by the TCC project. This report aims to be the guideline for developing the MRV system for the transport sector in Thailand. It is scheduled to be launched by the second quarter of 2016, after the approval from the project steering committee in Thailand.

Mrs. Chutinthorn Mankhong, the Acting Chief of Sustainable Transport Promotion Division of OTP, thanked the participants for their contributions in the workshop and emphasised that OTP will continuously cooperate with the TCC project to further organise the MRV workshop and training for improving the data collection system for the transport sector.

Mr. Trigg highlighted that TCC will provide technical support for the development of the MRV system for the land transport sector by bringing together local, regional, and international experts to share their expertise with Thailand. Also, the project will support the training for building up capacity for governmental officers to be able to effectively conduct the MRV system for the transport sector in Thailand.