Thailand's Second National Communication - Official Document - March 2011

The creation of a National Communication offers countries the opportunity to contribute with technically sound studies and information that can be used for designing mitigation and adaptation measures, and project proposals that can and will help increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change. Activities generally include: V&A assessments, Greenhouse Gas Inventory preparation, Mitigation Analysis or Education, and awareness raising activities. The ultimate goal is the integration of climate change considerations into relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions.

The agricultural sector in Thailand is most vulnerable to climate change impact, since most farmers are small landholders in rainfed areas. The shift from annual field crops to permanent trees in recent years further limits the flexibility of changing the cropping system, and hence creates more vulnerability. Research and development in this area has so far not been able to sufficiently address uncertainty issues. Policy development is mostly general, calling for increasing the management capacity of farmers under high-risk situations and for enhancing the climate and early warning systems. 

Natural disasters, especially droughts and floods, have become increasingly common in Thailand. Global warming is expected to aggravate these problems. Statistics show increasing damage due to droughts and floods in general, fluctuating from a few million to billions of Baht. Thailand has introduced climate factors into disaster management and further research and development in this area are urgently needed.