Thailand’s 2012 TNA focused on key sectors such as water, agriculture, and energy and contributed to the formulation of the country’s first Nationally Determined Contribution.
Thailand’s first TNA was successful in helping secure $58.7 million in funding through two major Green Climate Fund (GCF) projects focused on enhancing climate resilience in Thailand through effective water management and sustainable agriculture in the Great Chao Phraya River Basin area.
The GCF funding packages provided Thailand with $17.5 million for ‘enhancing climate resilience through effective water management and sustainable agriculture’ in October 2021, and $41.2 million for ‘strengthening climate-smart rice farming” in October 2023. Both projects referenced the 2012 TNA findings in their proposals and support direct implementation of Thailand’s identified climate technology priorities.
More than 70% of countries that have done TNAs now mention them in their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, showing how important the TNA has become for climate planning worldwide. The Green Climate Fund now looks specifically at whether projects align with a country’s TNA when assessing funding proposals, meaning having a robust TNA is now becoming a requirement more than an added bonus for countries seeking climate funding.
“For Thailand, the TNA gives us a solid foundation for our funding requests. Instead of just asking for money and saying ‘trust us, we know what we’re doing,’ we can show funders exactly what technologies we need and why. We have the research, we’ve talked to all the right people, and we have a clear plan. That makes our proposals much stronger,” said Dr. Surachai Sathitkunarat, President of the Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council and Executive Director of APEC Center for Technology Foresight (APEC CTF), and Thailand’s TNA Coordinator.
The success of Thailand’s first TNA has built the country’s confidence and experience in its second TNA, which will take a more sophisticated approach by integrating foresight methodologies, expanding stakeholder collaboration to include more private sector engagement, and ensuring better alignment and integration with national plans like the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and National Adaptation Plan.
Thailand’s latest TNA is designed to further implementation and secure additional Green Climate Fund support, while focusing on emerging areas like digitalization, sustainable mobility, and the water-energy-food nexus – evolving from a foundation of basic climate technologies to more advanced, integrated solutions.
Since the results of Thailand’s 2012 TNA were incorporated into Thailand’s Climate Change National Plan for 2015-2050, the TNA process has been used by Thailand as a practical complement to its key climate policy documents, including its (NDC).
Thailand further integrated the TNA process into its climate commitments by identifying specific adaptation strategies in its 2018 National Adaptation Plan, and now directly references the TNA in its current NDC, highlighting its need for international support in technology transfers
“Each time we update our national plans or commitments, the TNA becomes more central, not less. We’re learning how to make the TNA not just a planning document, but a real implementation tool that guides our policy decisions and funding priorities,” said Dr Sathitkunarat.
The projects taking place under Thailand’s TNA will benefit 25 million inhabitants of the Greater Chao Phraya River Basin by enhancing climate resilience through effective water management and sustainable agriculture. The project will do so by improving water management, food security, and agricultural livelihoods in the Basin.
As a developing country, Thailand has had to carefully balance the social impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation projects and understand how these changes affect people’s daily lives and income. For example, climate-smart rice farming techniques help farmers maintain or even increase their yields despite changing weather patterns. These techniques include the use of drought tolerance crops and water optimization technologies, as well as post-harvest technology improvements, to help farmers get better prices for their products and reduce crop losses and waste.
The launch event for Thailand’s latest TNA touched on salient points which all countries must consider in the reality of their approach to climate technology. “Most people in Thailand aren’t immediately concerned about climate change in the abstract, and want to know ‘what’s in it for me? How will this project benefit me directly?’ And that’s actually a very important question,” said Dr Sathitkunarat.
“If we don’t address their concerns about benefits upfront, we’re going to struggle with adoption later. We’ve proven we can identify technologies and secure funding – now we need to prove we can implement them in ways that actually work for Thai communities. That means being much more strategic about stakeholder engagement, using foresight to anticipate challenges, and designing our technology transfer programs around what people actually want and need,” he added.
Through the Technology Needs Assessments Project, UN Environment, through UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre, helps developing countries determine their technology priorities for mitigating and adapting to climate change. The Technology Needs Assessment Project is funded by the Global Environment Facility and is implemented in close collaboration with the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, being the Technology Executive Committee and the Climate Technology Centre and Network.