TDRI QUARTERLY REVIEW

Volume 36, No. 04, Month DECEMBER, Year 2021, Pages 1 - 12

A new paradigm for green growth in thailand

Kannika Thampanishvong, Charika Channuntapipat, Patree Witoonchart

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As Thailand will face novel risks in the future, such as climate change and changes in trade rules and regulations, conventional ways to drive the economy using intensive resources without consideration of environmental impacts will not lead to sustainable growth. Concerns about risks from climate change are not limited to Thailand, however; these concerns are shared by business leaders all over the world. A study by the World Economic Forum, entitled “World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Reports 2020: Long-term risk outlook,” revealed that climate change-related risks, including extreme weather events, natural disasters, biodiversity loss, climate action failure, and humanmade environmental disasters, are among the most pressing risks facing businesses. This means that, in order to drive economic growth, climate change and other environmental issues cannot be overlooked. The Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Working Group 11 emphasized the influence of human activities on climate change, especially the change in global surface temperatures (Figure 1). Figure 1 shows a significant increase in the global surface temperature following the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the eighteenth century, resulting in major impacts, such as extreme heat and heavy precipitation events (Figure 2). Figure 2 reveals that several regions around the world are more likely to experience such events, especially Southeast Asian countries which are at risk of both extreme heat and heavy precipitation. Furthermore, climate models show that global surface temperatures are at risk of increasing by almost 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the twenty-first century under high carbon dioxide (CO2) emission scenarios (Figure 3).

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