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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

to adapt.” This led to a target of restricting global warming to within 1.5˚C of
pre-industrial levels (UN-IPCC, 2008).

Second, in 2006, a review by Nicholas Stern for the UK government
introduced calculation of the financial impact of climate change. Stern estimated
that warming was likely to be around 4-5˚C by 2100, calculated that the result

would be a 5% drop in global GDP, and proposed that early investment to prevent
this was clearly economically justified (Stern, 2007).
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) applied Stern’s framework to
produce a report on The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia covering
the five major countries: Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Viet Nam, published in 2009 (ADB, 2009a; see also ADB, 2009b). This was the
first comprehensive and ambitious study on climate change in the region.

It documented the existing physical changes and their social impacts;
it presented a range of model-based scenarios for the future. And it proposed
policies for mitigation and adaptation, country by country. For mitigation
(meaning reduction of emissions), the main strategies proposed were:

increase efficiency of energy use
use more renewable energy sources, especially solar
increase forest area for carbon capture

For adaptation (meaning coping with the impacts of climate change),
the main strategies proposed were

invest in better water management
adopt more resilient crops and practices in agriculture

improve weather forecasting and early warning systems
combat the spread of tropical diseases

Following this report, most governments in the region, with ADB
assistance, compiled medium-term plans for combatting climate change. These
have since been updated and lengthened. In 2014 Thailand prepared a Climate
Change Masterplan for 2015-2050 (ONEP, 2015). Other countries have similar
documents. The strategies were in line with the ADB framework.

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