Taking stock of nation’s climate finance
Thailand ranked 30th in year's list of countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, but still lacks a clear picture of the current climate finance flows in the country.
Transition-finance for a green economy
For those who advocate for more timely and meaningful climate finance commensurate with the increasingly cataclysmic impact of climate change, the year 2025 seems to begin on a rocky start. Early last month, 11 large US and Canadian banks exited the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), the UN-backed coalition of banks that claim their dedication […]
Role of banks in climate change future
On Jan 10, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that 2024 was the warmest year on record, likely the first year with a global mean temperature of more than 1C above the 1850-1900 average. Despite the alarming fact, the year 2025 is not off to a good start. The same week that WMO made that […]
Bridging Thailand’s climate adaptation finance gap
By many accounts, Thailand consistently ranks among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. The oft-cited Global Climate Risk Index by GermanWatch ranked Thailand’s long-term climate risk in 2021 as 9th in the world. Thailand is one of the 10 most flood-affected countries in the world, and the risks it faces are […]
The promise and peril of green bonds
Once occupying a tiny fraction of global financial markets, “green bonds” have grown exponentially in the past decade to become one of the world’s fastest-growing asset classes. In February 2024, Bloomberg reported that total impact bond issuance — a catch-all word to include green, social, sustainability, and sustainability-linked bonds, but more on these later — […]
Pushing banks towards green finance
In an earlier article in this space, I mentioned that "the Bank of Thailand should integrate [Thailand] taxonomy into its reporting and disclosure regulations for the financial sector, as the EU has done, because the public scrutiny of activities in the banking sector can and should be part of the learning process on the journey towards greener finance".
Next steps for Thailand Taxonomy
As demands for climate finance increase with the tangible impacts of climate change, people increasingly look to the government and various regulators to establish and upgrade a more effective combination of rules, regulations and market-based mechanisms to spur investments at a scale that is commensurate to our needs.
The twin challenges of ‘climate finance’
As I am writing this in early August, climate finance is becoming a trendier topic in Thailand’s financial and business sector. I suspect this is partly due to two recent developments: the upcoming Climate Change Act (the draft of which is making the rounds via public hearing sessions), and the Excise Department’s announcement in June […]
No sign of a ‘just’ energy transition
As multiple impacts of climate change become more severe worldwide, including in Thailand, the need for an energy transition becomes ever more paramount. To that end, the latest draft of the Power Development Plan (draft PDP2024), which was unveiled in June, is touted by the Ministry of Energy as being consistent with Thailand’s goals of […]