With increasing awareness among the voting public of the environmental challenges faced in this part of the world, it is imperative that the new government draws up a Memorandum of Understanding with all concerned agencies to take urgent action in fighting the worse impacts of global warming and the upcoming El Nino, says Assistant Professor Thon Thamrong-Nawasawat of the Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University.
The last two months have clearly shown that this year is already hotter than 2022 and this is likely to continue. And scientists are warning that the return of the El Nino climate phenomenon later this year will cause global temperatures to rise and that it is very likely that the next big El Nino will take the world’s warming above the much-touted 1.5C over pre-industrial levels.
Asst. Prof. Thon, a well-known expert in marine ecology, points out that in addition to the effects of global warming, the return of El Nino next year will cause coral bleaching, damaged seagrasses, marine heat waves, interrupted fish migration, rising sea levels, and worsening wildfires due to longer periods of hot and dry conditions.
He suggested that the new government takes serious action on all sides focusing on CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), better measures to preserve the ecology and improve the operations to gain international recognition of Thailand’s nature-based carbon credits. For the longer term, the government should consider bills that support the development of CCS technology.
PTT Exploration and Production Plc. (PTTEP) developed Thailand’s first Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project at the Arthit offshore gas field in 2021, and is now in the process of a preliminary front-end engineering and design (Pre-FEED) study, with CCS operations expected to start in 2026. Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (Public Organization) or TGO expects that the CCS would be available for commercial use in 2040. In the meantime, so-called Blue Carbon, the carbon captured by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystems. and Green Carbon, the carbon sequestered by land ecosystems, will continue to serve as nature-based CCS over the next 15-20 years.
For years, Dr. Thon has studied seagrasses as an effective way to capture and store emissions. Now, the Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart University is collaborating with public and private organizations as well as communities to conduct a feasibility study of seagrass plantations and restoration in the pilot areas of Koh Man in Rayong, Koh Mak and Koh Kradat in Trat, and Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Samui and Koh Tan in Surat Thani.
“We plan to analyze Blue Carbon data from seagrasses along coral reefs, working with the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and local people and collaborating with overseas specialists such as universities in Japan. We hope that this study into using seagrasses to generate carbon credits will help Thailand reduce greenhouse gases by capturing Blue Carbon in ecosystems effectively and objectively in the future.”
The first thing the new government should do is to increase the budget for all operations, Asst. Prof. Thon emphasizes. Currently, the agencies are still lacking capacity and efficiency to explore and preserve the marine natural resources.
At Kasetsart University, Asst. Prof. Thon is adopting new technology to explore the coastal and marine ecology. Thanks to the support of Santi Bhirombhakdi, CEO of Boon Rawd Brewery Co., Ltd., he has tested a waterproof drone in exploring shallow-water corals for the first time. Traditionally, explorers need time for such operations because they have to walk or dive into the target areas and can only do so 4-5 months a year and for no more than 3-4 days a month, so a drone could help them investigate rapidly.
In addition, the university has recently deployed the RTK-GNSS technique to monitor changes in the coastal and marine ecosystems affected by global warming. This modern technology will provide more data accuracy to create 3-dimension mapping, leading to greater marine preservation.
He further explained that in an effort to preserve the shallow corals, he has to find corals that are highly tolerant to rising sea temperatures and then get them to breed. Investigations have found that the coral bleaching which occurred in several areas over the last 3 years cannot be recovered.
Now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that climate change presents a ‘code red for humanity’, urgent action is needed from all parts of the global economy to achieve key climate goals of emission reduction.
By Veena Thoopkrajae with additional report by Patcharee Luenguthai
