Building for green growth in Thailand

Thailand seems likely to emerge as a model of green building in Asia, a region that is urbanizing more rapidly than any other in the world.

Last month, the country took a significant step by submitting two Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: greening Thailand’s low- and middle-income housing, and greening the country’s government buildings.

UN Environment’s technical assistance and stakeholder engagement were instrumental in helping the country work out how to promote sustainable, energy-efficient buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring affordable housing for its citizens. The assistance was provided via NAMA for the Building Sector in Asia, a project of the International Climate Initiative. The project supported Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam to design government-led interventions to boost investment in energy-efficient buildings.

The project brought together ministries, local authorities, representatives from the construction sector, civil society and developers through a series of country-specific workshops and training sessions to address barriers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate action in the building sector.

Thailand is the first of the four countries involved in the project to register a NAMA in the official registry maintained by the UN Climate Change Convention.

“Thailand’s government, leading the way, aims to truly transform the building market and see green growth for years to come,” said Isabelle Louis, Deputy Director of UN Environment Asia and the Pacific Office. “This project facilitates regional action for our collective future—heralding an era of Asian leadership on global climate commitments,” she added.

Thailand’s new commitments will help to reduce poverty, create jobs and promote access to energy at the local and national levels. Both proposed actions will support Thailand’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement of 20 per cent emission reductions from business-as-usual by 2030. Thailand has translated these international commitments into national policy. Their climate actions will help accomplish the national goal, outlined in the Energy Efficiency Plan, of reducing energy intensity by 30 per cent by 2036, compared to 2010 levels, as well as their comprehensive Climate Change Masterplan, which sets out commitments through 2050.

By commissioning nationally built low- and middle-income housing, retrofitting government buildings, and instilling national green building specifications, Thailand will push the country’s housing and construction markets to move towards greener standards.

The projects will address design aspects of new buildings and retrofits, including materials, energy and water-efficient appliances, and research and market stimulation to lower the costs of green construction.

The new commitment on housing will slash Thailand’s projected emissions by 304 kt of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, while the government building commitment will cut emissions by 1.6 kt of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. The action related to government building could have an even higher potential for emissions reductions, as the project may be extended to all 639 government buildings, which would bring the total impact to 98.8 kt of carbon dioxide per year. This is equivalent to taking approximately 60,000 cars off the road each year. Thailand expects to complete the government buildings retrofit by 2022 and the housing developments by 2023.

NAMAs, first introduced in the UN Climate Change Convention’s Cancun Agreements, are actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions relative to business-as-usual emissions in developing countries. They are prepared under the umbrella of a government initiative, aligned with the country’s national development goals, and supported by finance, technology and capacity building.

Learn more about UN Environment’s work on climate change.