Thai-German Climate Programme launched

Germany invests 17.9 million euros in new Thai climate programme.

In April 2018, the Governments of Thailand and Germany celebrated the launch of the “Thai-German Climate Programme (TGCP)”. The TGCP supports the implementation and operationalisation of Thailand’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) at the sub-national level with a cross-sectoral approach. Hence, it will support the decarbonisation of the Thai economy and strengthen its adaptation abilities.

At the TGCP launch, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, H.E. Mr. Peter Prügel, emphasised the significant public interest in this programme: “The technical and financial cooperation of our two countries Thailand and Germany dates back to over 60 years ago – and has been very successful in almost uncountable number of projects. Today – the strong push for an accelerated development of Thailand’s economy and the entailed high demand for energy, keeps up the pressure on the Thai Government to support a framework that aims at more sustainable sourcing, more energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.” The Ambassador expressed Germany´s commitment to working with partners in Thailand on these challenges and to share experiences from Germany.

TGCP is financed by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Environment Ministry (BMU) and is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. At the launch ceremony, Mr. Stephan Contius, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of BMU emphasized that Thailand was an important partner country of the IKI with 13 bilateral projects and a total value of nearly 50 million euros being financed since 2009. Contius: “The new IKI programme we are launching today will contribute to Thailand´s efforts on climate change. Business-as-usual is not an option anymore: Both governments are very much interested in accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement and of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

The Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), Dr. Wijarn Simachaya stressed Thailand‘s commitment to include the results of international climate negotiations into national policies. “Thailand has made considerable progress in transforming the results of international climate negotiations into national policies. With the submission of our first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in which we defined our climate goals and priority sectors, Thailand has set itself ambitious CO2-mitigation targets and adaptation goals. We have formulated an NDC Mitigation Roadmap outlining sectoral measures to achieve our targets. Furthermore, by the end of 2018, Thailand will launch our National Adaptation Plan for adaptation goals. Thailand is thus on track in setting a path domestically to contribute to global efforts to fight climate change.”

The IKI is dedicating 17.9 million euros (about THB 690 million) to the four-year implementation of the new Thai-German Climate Programme. Governmental partners from several departments, the private sector and civil society will cooperate on climate-friendly development approaches in the energy, waste, water and agriculture sector as well as on general aspects of climate change.