Resident Coordinator’s Remarks at the MOI-UN Partnership towards Sustainable Thailand through SDG Localization

Khun Suttipong,  

Dr. Wandee,  

Esteemed Governors,  

Dr. Audrey-Anne Rochelemagne,

Distinguished panelists and UN colleagues.  

It is my pleasure to welcome you all as we take the agenda of SDG localization forward with the support of the 76 Governors.  

I would like to thank Khun Suttipong, Dr. Wandee, and officials of the Ministry of Interior for leading this partnership and taking the SDGs to scale across the country. 

The leadership of the Governors has been critical and the commitments they made in June last year for SDGs and climate are translating into deeper partnerships to scale up waste segregation collection and investing in the soft power of sustainable Thai fabrics.   

Equally important has been MOI’s whole-of-society approach, which includes broad-based partnerships with universities, fashion designers, and communities to bring the latest technologies and best expertise to accelerate SDG localization. 

Your hard work is paying dividends nationwide.  

It is especially heartening to see waste segregation coming to fruition. 

This countrywide initiative is reducing carbon emissions and generating carbon credits, as I have personally witnessed. 

I had the privilege of visiting five provinces (Sakon Nakhon, Pattani, Pattalung, Chiang Rai and Lopburi) together with the Khun Suttipong and his leadership team where I met people in rural households and observed them segregating waste through compost bins based on standardized practices, which eliminates methane emissions. 

Taking waste segregation to 14 million households nationwide yields more than 550,000 tons of carbon reductions annually and its equivalent in carbon credits, independently verified by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization.  

The first tranche of these credits was recently sold to a national bank and the second tranche is ready to be traded. This supports local governments to invest in community infrastructure and is an incentive for households to continue collecting and segregating their waste. 

This speaks to MOI’s leadership! In Asia and the Pacific, not many countries have tackled the problem of waste management on such a scale. Thailand is now an example worthy of emulation.  

Khun Suttipong, we are grateful to you for showcasing these achievements at the upcoming COP 28 in Dubai to inform sustainable practices elsewhere. 

Yet, even as we are making good progress, we still have a long way to go. 

The country’s agricultural and waste sector together generate 20% of GHG emissions. Reducing this will be key to reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. 

From a UN perspective, this also entails scaling up Thailand’s recycling rate. Currently, only a quarter of plastic waste is recycled, even as the country is one of its largest producers. 

In this context, nearly 1,700 waste banks across almost 1,100 local administrative authorities are operational for collecting paper, plastic, and aluminum.  

Esteemed Governors, we want each of these waste banks operating on par, increasing circularity, and enhancing recycling across Thailand.  

When I visited Kong Thanu village in Lopburi, I had the opportunity to meet with the ladies association to understand the principles by which communities collect, recycle, and invest in social welfare.  

Dr. Wandee, in your capacity as president of the ladies association you have reminded me that waste segregation is already generating $25 million with the potential to be scaled up tenfold.  

This is truly inspirational and also very important as waste left unsegregated and unrecycled ends up in saturated landfills and marine ecosystems.  

Another key partnership is with the 2 million women weavers nationwide and the fashion designers who are working with them (represented by Khun Ford and Khun Joe, this afternoon).  

This is inspired by the vision of Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari and enables us to assess the carbon footprint of Thai silk fabrics to reduce emissions during their lifecycle.  

It also includes introducing natural dyes, preserving traditional motifs and designs, and leveraging OTOP for enhancing Thailand’s soft power.  

This transformation would not be possible without the fashion designers. Your skills, fashion sense, and coaching, enables women weavers to earn higher incomes by globally benchmarking Thai fabric and making it even more competitive.     

During my visit to Yaring in Pattani, I witnessed the transformative impacts of these sustainable practices. The creation of centuries-old batik designs using sea indigo, with saltwater techniques remains engrained into daily life, informing local production methods.  

Encouragingly, more and more young people are embracing these sustainable practices in this creative industry, withing UNEP’s framework for sustainable and circular textile value chain. Their deeper engagement will be crucial for transformative outcomes. 

Going forward, under your leadership Khun Suttipong, the UN seeks to further deepen these partnerships to increase the scale and pace of these SDG accelerators.   

Furthermore, UNDP and UN-Habitat are working with provincial administrations to develop voluntary local reviews and SDG snapshots which will tell us at a glance which goals are on and off track.  

Esteemed Governors, this will enable you to prioritize actions based on evidence. 

The statement of commitment to Sustainable Thailand is an important building block for Thailand to achieve the SDGs, highlighting the country’s leading role on circularity and climate action in the region.  

Thank you.