Decision Making Enhancement for Energy Policy Related to Climate Change Issue by Using Sea

Abstract:

Thailand is inevitably affected by the climate change impacts. According to IPCC’s 4th assessment report, various potential impacts such as long-term decreasing trend in rainfall, beach erosion, and vulnerable to sea-level rise are predicted. Even there are limited researches on the climate change impact in Thailand; the results of the researches reflect the variation of the climate patterns, which affect both the natural resources and human activities. Climate change is the cross-cutting issue, which interacts with various sectors including of energy, transport, health, and agricultural. The previous measures implemented to reduce GHG emission were reported to successfully achieve their targets but the GHG emission inventory kept increasing due to the economic growth and improving of quality of life. This can be implied that there is the need of the comprehensive policy with the sustainability consideration. In additional to the comprehensive policy itself, the strong mechanisms for implementation and monitoring are needed. However there is the limited of current practice of policy process in Thailand. In this study, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), the new assessment tool proposed by Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), is studied for its possible intervention in policy process focused on the energy policy related to climate change issue to identify more long-term sustainable actions and make a decision making process more strategically sustainable, and less political.

Keywords: Climate Change Policy, Thailand, Strategic Environmental Assessment