Honorable Dr. Wijarn, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,

Mrs. Prasertsuk, Executive Director of Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO), 

Mr. Yoshinori, First Secretary of Embassy of Japan, 

Mr. Jens Radschinski, Head of UNFCCC, Regional Collaboration Centre Bangkok.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

On behalf of the United Nations Development Programme in Thailand, I am honored to welcome you to the 4th Climate Finance, Technology, and Capacity Building Regional Conference, which will help facilitate south-south dialogues to translate global policies into local actions, determining means to accelerate those actions through various financing mechanisms, as well as experience sharing and knowledge transfer to enhance the implementation of the Paris Agreement. I am very pleased to welcome participants from eight other countries in the region as well. 

First of all, please allow me to congratulate The Royal Thai Government for taking the lead in initiating this annual conference which encourages the participants to dwell on specific topic that are essential in addressing the regional challenges posed by climate change. We are extremely pleased to co-host the three-day event.  

This year, the focus is on accelerating the implementation of Paris Agreement that requires decisive actions by national Governments to reduce their GHG emissions drastically. For Thailand, the target to reduce GHG emission is 20% below the business as usual by 2030 to contribute to the global goal to keep the temperature rise below 2°C by the end of century. 

Addressing challenges of climate change is, as we all are aware, closely linked with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Low carbon and climate resilient development roadmap is being promoted as a means for growth, also as means for generating decent jobs and for eliminating poverty. UNDP highly appreciates the ASEAN member states for being active in developing their roadmaps and challenging themselves to ensure continued innovation in the technology, energy, finance and conservation sectors. 

While the Paris Agreement requires nations countries to continuously increase their committed the goal to targets in reducingreduce GHG emissions, the countries will decide how to lower their emissions. As no single national Government will be able to fully invest all that is needed to achieve the ambitious targets, contributions by every sector will be essential. Especially, we believe the private sector will play an essential role in the future with their innovative ideas, technologies and investments. UNDP-supported Private Climate Expenditure and Institutional Review (PCEIR) for renewable energy shows that Thai private sector invested ~USD 11,3 Million in renewables for the period of 2011-2015. For a higher middle-income country as Thailand, we see a huge potential in private sector as supported by the Government policies. 

In translating global policies to national level actions, UNDP supports the host countries to accelerate the Paris Agreement implementation through policy and planning, piloting of tangible measures and accessing climate finance by embedding capacity building in our interventions. For example, we support:

1.     Policy and Planning, includingdevelopment of NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) Plans and Roadmaps, the National Adaptation Plans, and national and local disaster risk reduction plans; 

2.     Generating data for informed decision-making, i.e.supporting Public and Private Expenditure reviews in climate change and energy to help increase effectiveness, preparationof national communication and biennial update report to UNFCCC;

3.     Accessing Climate Finance, through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Adaptation Fund to implement adaptation and mitigation measures jointly with the government;

4.     Piloting and demonstration of not only adaptation, but innovative mitigation projects in various sectors through our programme, i.e.emission reduction in energy, transport, waste and housing sectors and sequestration through forests and peatlands. 

UNDP will continue supporting the host countries in addressing challenges associated with climate change and welcomes opportunities for new collaborations. 

I strongly believe that three-day conference will result in good knowledge exchange and start of new South-South collaborations. 

I wish you a successful conference. Thank you!