Let the sun out
Re: "Pushing banks towards green finance", (Opinion, Oct 2).
Sarinee Achavanuntakul is justifiably recognised as one of the country's most astute climate crises analysts, particularly with regard to the top priority, our energy sector's rapid transition to a low-carbon future. But she is too polite!
She articulates precisely: "As of September, Thailand still lacks a suite of public policies and regulations that are necessary to propel a meaningful economy-wide decarbonisation and just energy transition.
"For example, there is no mandatory carbon pricing regime of any kind, no mandatory carbon accounting, no coal phaseout date, and the net zero goal of 2065 is 15 years behind most countries.
"Finally, the draft 2024 Power Development Plan (PDP 2024) makes no mention of rooftop solar and still makes room for 6,300 MW of new natural gas power plants by 2037, without factoring in the potential added costs from future carbon tax and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology."
More forthrightly, Khun Sarinee might have quoted one leading global climate risk rating agency, which refers to Thailand's decarbonisation efforts as "critically insufficient".
Even more bluntly, the draft PDP 2024–37 can most accurately be described as a national disaster. It's a disaster for every citizen, doomed for decades to consume dirty, high-cost electricity, and it's a disaster for every business that needs to use that electricity to compete in the global marketplace. Moreover, it undermines Thailand's already pathetic international commitment to achieving a low-carbon future, one in which our children can survive.
How is this possible? Just follow the money, to Big Energy. PDP 2024 is a huge win for Big Energy, the handful of energy conglomerates in cahoots with the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) which together control licensing for our highly regulated power sector.
With licences come Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). With PPAs come huge bank loans to build huge gas-fired power stations which consumers don't need, but end up paying for. The international standard for electricity grids is to have 15% excess power production capacity over peak load and Thailand generally has much more: sometimes about 45% of power glut.
If the draft PDP 2024–37 is not radically amended, by 2037 we could have excess production capacity in excess of 100%!
Please, please prime minister, stop this disaster now, and turn on the sun.
