Resident Coordinator's Remarks at the Validation Workshop on the Stockholm+50 Thailand National Consultation Report

Mr.  Jatuporn Buruspat, Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE),

Excellency Mr. Jon Åström Gröndahl, Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand,

Excellency Mr. Kiptiness Lindsay Kimwole, Ambassador of Kenya to Thailand,

Ministry and NESDC partners, UNDP colleagues, friends,

It is a pleasure to join you today to discuss the National Consultations ahead of the Stockholm+50 conference and how the Report contributes to UN Thailand’s work moving forward.

Thank you to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Embassies of Sweden and Kenya, and UNDP Thailand for co-convening these consultations.

In the coming week, I will be attending the Stockholm+50 conference and speaking directly to Thailand’s priorities leveraging the UN development system for sustainable consumption and production, focusing on experiences in resource efficiency and the circular economy, how we can utilize science and technology effectively, and joint programming through Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) to develop the green economy.

Addressing those points today, I want to speak to the challenges that are raised in the Report, our efforts to expand and strengthen partnerships, and pragmatic plans to promote joint programming.

Let me begin by drilling down on data. The big picture is that we are lacking information to monitor progress and inform policy, with only 39 per cent of data available for SDGs 12 to 15 related to climate and planet, which contrasts with data availability in Thailand for other indicators.  

I appreciate the Report’s emphasis on data innovation, inclusivity and strengthening statistical capacities. UN Agencies are working with Government to address the data gap using satellites, GIS mapping and big data, with the best example demonstrated in sustainable agriculture and addressing food losses.

Another point I want to highlight is the focus on gender perspectives in achieving sustainability. In some respects, Thailand is a leader on gender equity, for example demonstrated in boardrooms with highest proportion of women Chief Financial Officers in any country in the world.

Yet systemic gender-based bias persists. This has been clearly explained by a friend of the UN in Thailand, solar power pioneer Dr. Wandee Khunchornyakong, who founded the country’s first solar power generation company in 2010 and has told us about the barriers she faced in securing financing because of gender bias.

Civil society groups, NGOs and community-based organizations are enablers of progress on the SDGs, as partners working directly with and from within communities. All of us, including the UN and Government, rely on these partnerships to translate plans and programmes into action, and to better understand the communities that we serve.

Especially when we talk about SDG localization, we rely on the expertise and networks of our UNDP colleagues in Thailand, whose commitment and hard work has a multiplier effect across the 2030 Agenda.

The UN system as a whole is committed to protect and promote open civic spaces that are essential to progress on the SDGs and Thailand’s future as a prosperous and inclusive society.

I also want to highlight UN Thailand’s deepening ties with the private sector, including banks and investors, as partners and leaders in sustainability.

We see that leadership role in Thailand, and in our partnership with the Global Compact Network Thailand (GCNT), most of whose members have set more ambitious net-zero targets for 2050 that exceed the current NDC.

From the GCNT’s commitments, the private sector last year reduced emissions by 7 million tons, or about 2% of Thailand’s total GHGs.

We’re continuing to strengthen that partnership, including research and support for SMEs that contribute to about nearly 43% of GDP and whose inclusion is essential for sustainability gains across value chains.

With government regulators, we are also reaching out to capital markets and encouraging the scaling up of the principles of responsible investment and banking, with 41 asset managers, investors and banks considering signing on, and with UNDP to soon bring on board insurers as well.

We see enormous untapped potential in the private sector as “champions of biodiversity” as we leverage global momentum on the Convention for Biological Diversity with UNDP and UNEP’s grassroots experience and technical expertise.

UN Agencies have been working together with Government and the private sector to deploy clean technologies in the oil and gas sector and regenerative furnaces and scrap processing machines in steel and aluminum manufacturing.

Chemical fingerprinting of smoke and haze sources enables us to pinpoint air pollution sources, while waste management across 30 hotspots nationwide is building the evidence base to inform recovery and recycling to support growth of the circular economy.

PAGE has been an effective tool to mobilize multiple agencies and partnerships for the green recovery, especially in SDG-aligned economic planning and financing. The UN needs to continue to develop mechanisms that incentivize joint programming and enable integrated policy advice.

The UN DSG during her recent visit to Thailand backed the idea of a pooled funding mechanism for the SDGs capitalized by Government and the private sector during her talks with the Prime Minister and private sector.

I want to continue to develop this proposal and hear your thoughts about better and more effective collaboration.

I look to learning more today from the findings and recommendations of the National Consultations, informing all of us ahead of Stockholm+50 and in line with the Leadership Dialogues.