Launch of the Thai 2050 Energy Pathways Calculator
An innovative web-based computer model, showing Thailand’s energy demand and supply and how they interact with the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target was launched in Thailand.
The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in conjunction with the British Embassy Bangkok, Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) and the Thai Ministry of Energy officially launched the “Thai 2050 Energy Pathways Calculator”.
The “Thai 2050 Energy Pathways Calculator” (or the Thai 2050 Calculator) is an innovative web-based computer model, showing Thailand’s energy demand and supply and how they interact with the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. It is an interactive user-friendly tool that allows non- technical experts to explore different energy and emissions scenarios out to the year 2050.
Developed from the UK’s 2050 Calculator, the Thai 2050 Calculator is based on an energy balancing model which uses a number of sectoral trajectories to calculate possible energy pathways to 2050. It draws on work conducted by the Department of Alternative Energy and Development Efficiency and the Energy Policy and Planning Office. Its data has been adapted from the UK model by Thai experts to fit the national circumstances of Thailand. The development of the Thai 2050 Calculator project is now completed and the web tool is available for the public and the UK’s 2050 Calculator can be found at UK 2050 Calculator
UK is the world’s first country to have the Climate Change Act in 2008 with an ambitious carbon emissions reduction target at 36% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 and a five-year carbon budget plan. DECC launched the UK 2050 Calculator in 2010 to help determine how the UK can tackle climate change and improve energy security. Dr. Anna Stephenson, Engineer from DECC, said: “The tool helps us to answer questions such as what technologies should we use, and what lifestyle changes may be needed in 2050, in order to help us reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050 (relative to 1990 levels). The tool offers an easy way to explore future scenarios and their impacts.” As the UK 2050 Calculator has proven to be so useful, DECC has been working with other countries such as Belgium, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia and Vietnam and Thailand, to help them to develop their own 2050 calculators with support from the UK’s International Climate Fund (ICF). Thailand is the first country in SE Asia to start the project with funding of £100,000, including technical trainings on modelling in Thailand and the UK with visits at other UK agencies involved (i.e. Dept. of Transport and DECC’s Statistics Unit).
Dr. Anna said:
DECC was particularly keen to work with Thailand, as South East Asia is one of the powerhouses of the world and Thailand is strategically positioned within it; the choices which countries like Thailand makes about its energy and land use profile will impact us all. DECC is therefore fully supportive of Thailand’s 2050 calculator, as we believe its development is mutually beneficial to both the UK and Thailand.
Asked why the 2050 Calculator is useful for policy makers, Dr Anna replied that the UK 2050 Calculator has influenced energy and climate policy formulation in the UK, such as the development of our Carbon Plan, where the UK Government set out a plan of how to meet its carbon objectives by 2050. The 2050 calculator also helped to provide more information and numbers around the debate of how to tackle climate change and increase the UK’s energy security. “We hope that the Thai Calculator will benefit in strengthening the energy and emissions debate in Thailand as much as it did in the UK. We are very much looking forward to seeing the Thai Calculator in the public domain and used by decision-makers. Following on from this visit, we also hope to remain in close contact with both the Thai Calculator team as well as other energy experts in the country,
Mr. Paul Bute, Deputy Head of Mission, British Embassy said:
I want to congratulate Thailand for their development of the Thai 2050 Calculator. I am very pleased that the funding from The International Climate Fund with support from our Department of Energy and Climate Change helped Thailand develop the Thai 2050 Calculator successfully. Now Thailand has its own tool to refine the country’s energy policy.
Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy, said:
This innovative web tool is really good. I believe Thailand can benefit greatly from the Thai 2050 Calculator development. Thank you for the UK support. Thailand is working on the new Integrated Energy Blueprint and will finalise it by this December. The launch of the Thai 2050 Calculator is very timely. We will discuss further with TGO and the team for the next steps.
Mrs. Prasertsuk Chamornmarn, TGO Executive Director, said:
We find the web tool very useful. The project helps increase both knowledge and technical capacity for our technical development team. I also believe that the tool can support Thailand in integrating more data for other related sectors (i.e. forestry and agriculture) into the model. We want to thank the UK for choosing Thailand to develop our own Calculator, especially the knowledge transfer and sharing.
At the official launch, there have been an introductory presentation of the UK 2050 Calculator and an opening and presentation of the Thai 2050 Calculator to government officials, businesses, NGOs and academics. This has been a venue for knowledge sharing and an exchange of feedback from all parties concerned. The Thai 2050 Calculator is aimed to be applied for direction creation for Thailand’s energy policy and planning and for a public use in the near future.
Last updated 1 December 2014 + show all updates
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