Thailand and Germany Celebrate 10 Years of Cooperation on Climate and Environment, Boosting Forces to Combat Climate Change
Bangkok, 26 November 2019 – 2019 is a special year for the bilateral relations of Thailand and Germany as the two nations celebrate their 10th year of cooperation in the area of climate and environment. In view of the urgency of this important issue, the German Embassy Bangkok, together with Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, held a commemorative event titled “10 Years: The Journey of Thai-German Cooperation - Together for a Better Climate”. The event celebrated the collaborative efforts to conserve climate and environment, looking at the past journey of cooperation, ongoing efforts and beyond.
“Germany is Thailand’s most important bilateral climate partner,” said H. E. Mr. Georg Schmidt, German Ambassador to Thailand in his opening statement.
“Today we take stock of the last ten years. Together we managed more than 60 projects. This includes waste management, use of solar energy, flood and drought preventing measures or the production of energy-saving air-conditioners and refrigerators. This is good. The potential damage of climate change is real, but we can do something about it. Thailand needs growth as much as environmental protection. A strong push to support a framework that aims at less CO2 emission, more energy-efficiency and more sustainable development. Germany remains committed to work with our Thai partners on these challenges and share experiences from Germany,” added Ambassador Schmidt.
H. E. Mr. Varawut Silpa-archa, the Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for its continuous support and stressed Thailand’s commitment to respond to the climate crisis.
“Because no one country can fight the challenges imposed by the climate and the environment alone, partnership among countries and stakeholders is of utmost importance. To ensure sustainability for our present and future generations, Thailand is devoted to quickening the pace of change with increased ambition and bold proposals. In the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Thailand has set itself ambitious CO2 mitigation targets and adaptation goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from the projected business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2030. The Thai-German cooperation has greatly contributed to our efforts, and I welcome the opportunity to look beyond the current exchange and raise the level of cooperation,” said the Thai Minister.
A total of 13 bilateral projects with a combined volume of nearly EUR 57.5 million (about THB 1.9 billion) from which two NAMA Facility projects with over EUR 13.5 million (about THB 450 million) are funded through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The projects focus on mitigating CO2 emissions and supporting Thailand in its efforts to adapt to climate change as well as to protect forest areas and biodiversity.
To illustrate the decade-long cooperation of the two countries, the event spanned an exhibition which demonstrated the results of climate action implementation under the theme “Journey of Cooperation”, a talk session focusing on perspectives from project beneficiaries and a reflection on the future cooperation on climate and environmental issues from a youth representative.
On this occasion, over 150 Thai government officials, businesses, academia, civil society, youth, the media, and the IKI implementer community, which include Plan International, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, were present.
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