Project ‘Support to the Development and Implementation of the Thai Climate Change Policy’, financed through the International Climate Initiative of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection, Building and Nuclear Safety, together with its Partner, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), cooperates with partners on the subnational level in Thailand, in order to integrate the provisions of the Thai National Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP) into provincial and municipal development planning.
17 provinces and 32 municipalities were selected as Partners based on criteria such as preparedness and motivation to participate, geo-physical characteristics, climate risks and potential impacts, development opportunities as well as economic development. The pilot provinces and municipalities represent a profile of the different geographical regions of Thailand. The project, together with ONEP, organized a kick-off event on the 16th of December 2014, at The Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok with representatives from the national level, Regional and Provincial Environmental Offices, as well as from the selected municipalities. The project presented the CCMC and the project approach of a modular training programme that aims to assist provincial and local decision makers in realigning development planning processes.
The training course consists of a sequence of 5 learning modules of 3 days each, that build on each other. The modules are completed by 5 assisting sessions scheduled between each learning module. The project will thus support the partners over a period of 1.5 years. Each training module will be trained in 4 rounds in the Central, Northern, North Eastern, and Southern Region of Thailand in order to have smaller groups of 20-30 participants that support peer to peer learning. The assisting session is designed as on the job training within the partner administrations in order to ensure that the knowledge from each training module is transferred to the working team in the provinces and municipalities. At the end of the training course each area will be have integrated climate change risks and development opportunities into their respective development plans.
The first module of training was successfully organized in the 4 regions during January – February 2015. The participants were introduced to the scientific background of the climate change issue, the Thai Climate Change Master Plan, the concept of sustainable development and an initial introduction into integrated planning, the questions of how a vision and goals for sustainable development can be developed, what are the risks and impacts of climate change on the pilot areas, how can national and international support for climate change action support the development goals of the pilot areas. In a final training session, the participants were supported in the prioritization of climate change issues (importance and urgency) in the pilot areas.