Resident Coordinator’s Remarks at the Norway-Asia Business Forum 2023

Your Excellency Tore O Sandvik, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry,

Your Excellency Ambassador Astrid Emilie Helle,

Khun Nalinee Taveesin,

Distinguished business leaders.

It is an honor to address you as we accelerate the global transition to net zero.

I would like to thank the Thai-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to this important forum, which is an opportunity to learn from your successes and draw lessons for the UN system.

We meet in Bangkok just as COP28 is kick-starting in Dubai today with a global stock take on emissions in light of commitments by governments on nationally determined contributions.

These commitments remain insufficient to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which will require a decrease of over 7% each year over the next decade.

The ambition of the private sector will be key to the net-zero pathway, particularly in energy generation as it accounts for half of global CO2 emissions with spillover effects for industry, agriculture, transport, construction and waste management.

Asia’s transition to a low-carbon future is especially complex as 85% of energy comes from fossil fuels. Structural changes will need to leverage transitional fuels as we increase the share of renewables. However, this transition needs to be just to leave no one behind.

Today I want to focus on solutions.

Norway is a climate-conscious nation. Therefore, its private sector is well-placed to set an example for other chambers of commerce in the country and the region.

Let me set out how the UN system is partnering with government and the private sector to accelerate the green transition.

The UN agencies bring to bear cutting-edge expertise, the best available technologies, and innovations for fit-for-purpose solutions.

UNIDO works closely with industry to support a low-carbon pathway.

UNEP supports member states to develop a binding deal to phase out plastics.

FAO works on agriculture, food systems and forest management.

ILO and UNESCO invest in human capital to scale up green jobs through education and reskilling.

UNDP supports the localization of climate action by engaging communities and local governments to entrench sustainable practices at the grassroots.

I would like to speak to 4 UN priorities:

The first is to bring the best available technologies for deep decarbonization and nature-based solutions.

Our platform for this is the Global Compact Network in Thailand, which brings 134 private companies together with a revenue base of nearly $400 billion.

This network has pledged to accelerate the SDGs and achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century. Their commitment is translating into annual reductions of nearly 2% of Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs).

In addition, the network has committed to supporting the protection of a third of land and marine areas nationwide.

Last week as part of our annual dialogue the Global Compact pledged to invest in human capital development for a million people to drive the green transition.

Building on this momentum, the UN, in its partnerships, has introduced the best available technologies in heavily polluting industries. These include scrap-processing smelters, regenerative furnaces, and carbon-absorbing solvents. 

The private sector has been quick to scale up these technologies as they impact their bottom lines positively while reducing their carbon footprints.

Simultaneously, resource-efficient and cleaner production methods are supporting major gains by decreasing industrial waste, water use, raw materials, and energy usage. 

Similar transformations are needed in construction to scale up low-carbon materials and green buildings.

Second, the UN is convening bankers, investors, and asset managers to unlock domestic climate financing.

In our dialogues, we are learning that increasing the supply of government-led green bonds will allow investors to diversify their portfolios and meet their Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) targets to remain globally competitive.

The Prime Minister’s recent decision taken in record time to issue $2 billion worth of sustainability-linked bonds is a vital step in addressing this gap.

The government will also need to create tax incentives for investors to further scale up sustainability-related bonds.

We are also learning that the UN’s principles of sustainable banking and investment serve as a long-term approach to transform operations for investors and build capacities to integrate sustainability and quantify environmental risks for investment decisions.

One of our champions is the Government Pensions Fund, the second-largest investor in Thailand. They are our co-conveners for this dialogue and inspire investors to fast-track their green portfolios.

This is an area where we can learn from the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Norway to draw lessons on ESG investing to secure returns on investments during high financial volatility.

Third, the UN is leveraging domestic carbon markets to generate economic value for ethnic minorities and local governments.

These markets are still in their infancy but will grow and formalize as the green taxonomy is defined by governments.

Even as they remain voluntary, our partnership with the private sector is generating carbon credits, which spread shared economic value between businesses and communities.

For example, through sustainable forest management covering 11% of forests nationwide, the UN has deployed technologies to track forest cover and illegal logging. We are investing in QR coding of trees for sustainable logging and generating a million CO2 credits for communities and the private sector.

Similarly, the UN partners with 76 Provincial Governors to take waste collection and segregation to 14 million rural households nationwide. This yields more than 550,000 tons of carbon reductions annually and its equivalent in independently verified carbon credits.

The first tranche of these credits was recently sold to a national bank and the second tranche is ready to be traded.

The carbon credits will be used to invest in local infrastructure and serve as a further incentive for households to continue to collect and segregate their waste.

The UN system is hoping to partner with you in these innovative ways to accelerate climate action.

Fourth, we need to bridge the ESG trust gap.

Greater transparency on issuer-level transition pathways is core to the green transformation. For that, we need to identify, assess, and measure companies' decarbonization strategies through robust ESG reporting standards.

Reliable ESG disclosers will eliminate the need for further validation, reducing complexity and cutting costs. Having good data, good definitions, and good disclosures will also address greenwashing concerns.

Thailand has taken the first step through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s One Report. It provides a solid foundation for standardized disclosures by listed companies on ESG.

We are also seeing increasing demand from the private sector for human rights due diligence to invest in mechanisms to address the grievances of workers and communities. These mechanisms are key in support of a just transition.

In closing, the UN looks to you to deepen innovative partnerships, invest in game-changing technologies, and quick wins to sustain the momentum for the green transition.

Let us continue raising ambition towards net-zero pathways.

Thank you.