Thailand risks double-digit GDP contraction by 2050: WB
Despite Thailand having doubled its investment in climate change, to over 279.5 billion baht, experts at the 2026 Climate Finance Tracking forum worry that the country offers uncertainty and efficacy in transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
Leading voices across the finance and environmental sectors discussed ways that Thailand should mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to green initiatives across the public and private sectors, financial institutions and international organisations at the ‘2026 Climate Finance Tracker: Time to Walk the Talk’event in Bangkok on July 23rd.
According to the Climate Risk Index 2024, Thailand ranks 17th among the most affected countries by extreme weather events. While the nation is currently in the advanced stage of implementing sustainable finance, its readiness for adaptation ranks 123rd globally.
The Climate Finance Tracker, developed by Climate Finance Network Thailand, a Bangkok-based think tank, provides a comprehensive financial tracking system for climate-related funding data.
According to the tracker, the country is focusing its mitigation funding on the transport, energy and water management sectors. This means investments do not cover vulnerable groups sufficiently and heavily depend on grey and single-purpose infrastructure.
Dr. Ornsaran Manuamorn, a senior financial sector specialist from the World Bank, expressed concern. “Thailand rarely uses its international public climate finance and only uses less than 1%. If Thailand doesn’t mitigate funding for climate change, then Thailand’s GDP could drop 7-14% by 2050,” he opined.
In the ‘2025 Country Climate and Development Report’, the World Bank suggests that Thailand should invest about US$220,000 million over the next 25 years, comprising about US$96,000 on mitigation and US$105,000 million on adaptation.
The World Bank also encourages Thailand to leverage nature-based solutions, green exports and global climate finance from the public and private sectors. Regulatory bodies, financial regulators, commercial banks and civil society are taking steps to align with these goals.
Chananun Supadulya, Director of the Foreign Exchange Policy and Supervision Department at the Bank of Thailand, emphasised that the Bank of Thailand is actively implementing a national transition plan, based on the Thailand taxonomy (a classification system of economic activities deemed as environmentally-sustainable).
This classification system colour-codes loan portfolios into green, yellow and red. Additionally, implementing an enhanced regulatory sandbox and equipping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with tools, such as a greenhouse gas data platform designed to incentivise financial institutions towards green funding.