slim green machine.
Parties are vying for support from voters in the general election last month on a number of issues, including natural methods and the environment. Nearly all parties have made proposals for environmental protection and fostering a green and clean development.
Academics and economic experts are concerned that many economic policies do not protect civil rights and social involvement, despite the fact that dynamic climate policy advocacy indicates a stronger political will among the parties to improve the environment.
They claim that most policies are also unable to address the urgent problems caused by pollution and the climate crisis.
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Thailand has experienced significant economic issues over the past ten years, including PM2.5 smog, industrial pollution, natural degradation, biodiversity loss, and worsening climate issues.
The nation is also having trouble keeping its international commitments to achieve Sustainable Development Goals( SDGs ) by 2030 and a net-zero carbon emissions target by the middle of the century.
Most parties have developed solutions to address these issues because the worsening economic situation is directly harming genuine resources and ecosystems and affecting the welfare and livelihood of many people across the nation.
The most important economic policies, according to an analysis of those found on each party’s’s sites, are those of the liberal Move Forward Party, Pheu Thai Partie, and Thai Sang Thai Party. In comparison to other occasions, they also take a more strategic approach.
According to the Move Forward Party, climate change is the most important problem facing mankind. As a result, the party’s’s economic policies are centered on reducing climate change by suggesting changes in the following five areas: forest, agriculture, industry, transportation, and waste management.
The party’s’s key strategy, according to Decharut Sukkumnoed, director of the Think Forward Center, is legislative reform that imposes stricter regulations to lessen the economic effects of business operations.
As we recognize that decentralization and social participation are essential for ensuring mitigation of national problems, we also place a strong emphasis on communities’ involvement in advancing our environmental policies, according to Mr. Decharut.
While this is going on, the Pheu Thai Party and Thai Sang Thai Partie are concentrating on enhancing people’s’s quality of life by addressing persistent dust pollutants and modernizing the water management system to avert floods and droughts.
According to Plodprasop Suraswadi, head of the Pheu Thai Party’s’s economic strategy, the party places a high priority on the well-being of its constituents, so we base our climate policies on our three main goals, which are ensuring that every citizen lives in safety, is strong, and enjoys life to the fullest.
To protect the rights of the people,” we are taking the air pollution issue from seasonal dust, and natural catastrophe from storm and drought certainly.”
In contrast to the other parties, the Chartthaipattana Partie, Bhumjaithai Party, Chartpattenakla Party and Democrat Party are concentrating more on putting into practice policies based on the Bio-Circular-Green Economic Model ( BCG ).
Since Chartthaipattana has considerable plans to promote environmental conservation and sustainable development through natural innovations, Surapong Promtao, a party-list candidate for the Party, stated that environmental development is both the party’s’s primary focus and main strength.
Varawut Silpa-archa has experience in managing federal laws on preservation and management of natural resources and ecosystem, according to Mr. Surapong. He previously served as Natural Resources and Environment Minister in the next government under Prime Minister Prayukt Chan-o-cha.
The party encourages every business to take part in efforts to protect the conditions in addition to the introduction of new natural improvements like carbon credits to support the journey to combat climate change.
Pornchai Maranet, a member of the Chartpattanakla Party’s’s policy working group, stated that his party is concentrating on developing financial incentives to encourage change and progress to improve the environment because it supports the free market, unrestricted competition, and democratic capitalism.
In order to encourage reforestation and the preservation of natural forests, we are proposing a forest relationship policy, according to Mr. Pornchai.” Deforestation and willful wildfires are now major environmental problems.
The United Thai Nation Party( UTN ) of Gen Prayut and the Palang Pracharath Party of Deputy Prime Minister Gene Prawit Wongsuwan, on the other hand, exhibit environmental policies the least.
The Palang Pracharath Party has a single, unambiguous policy on climate issues because it pledges to start building out large-scale water resources administration infrastructure across the country to stop floods and droughts as well as increase water storage capacity.
Since the only insurance related to this region is land reform, the UTN has even less to say about the environment. In particular with populations in national parks and protection forestlands, the party promises to resolve disputes over land rights.
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According to Asst Prof. Sitang Pilailar, a professor at Kasetsart University’s’s Water Resources Engineering Department, the last administration should revise its environmental protection strategy.
According to her, the nation’s’s present governmental policies are either inadequate, inappropriate, or ill coordinated and put into action to tackle climate issues, which is the main reason why it hasn’t done so.
The issues with the water management policy are among the most obvious instances of the substantial shortcomings in climate policy.
” The authorities are irrationally spending a lot of money on the construction of sizable water activities that are not only harming the environment and the local populace, but also ineffective at enhancing water direction.”
According to Asst Prof. Sitang, the project designs are out of date and unable to keep up with weather changes brought on by global warming.
She claimed that the next public needs to reform the whole system by encouraging the public sector to participate in planning and implementation because the top-down approach to climate planning is ineffective.
According to Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand( EARTH ), the government must reevaluate its development plans in order to strike a balance between economic promotion, particularly the growth of heavy industries and other polluted investments, and the preservation of clean air and healthy ecosystems.
People in most areas of Thailand are suffering from toxic industrial pollution as a result of decades of governmental policies that neglected environmental protection and greatly favored industrial investments to promote economic growth, according to Ms. Penchom.
” It is well past time for the public to concentrate on protecting the health and wellbeing of the populace by enacting stricter laws and regulations to limits investments in unhealthy companies and manage pollution emissions from industry.”
No matter how tempting parties’ policies appear to be, if they do not have the up to a healthy atmosphere at their core, they will be nothing more than misleading campaigns that further exacerbate economic inequality and cause more economic conflicts, according to Tara Buakamsri, Thailand Country Director for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
According to Greenpeace, effective climate policies must be based on social justice, democratic principles, and increased public participation in planning and decision-making.