Technology Roadmap for Achieving Carbon Neutrality of Thai Industrial Estate: The Case of Map Ta Put Area

Abstract

Climate change is the forefront of global agenda in recent years with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality or net zero emission. Consequently, Thailand has expressed her intention, with strong collaboration from all economic sectors, to achieve Carbon Neutrality and Net zero GHG by 2050 and 2065, respectively. Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), a public enterprise that plays a significant role to enhance competitiveness with technology and innovation along with being environmentally friendly for Thai industry, has ambitious target for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, especially in estate infrastructure. This paper illustrates the starting point to achieving the IEAT GHG mitigation goals by establishing a technology roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality in the largest industrial estate of the country, namely the Map Ta Put. By adopting appropriate GHG mitigation technologies, e.g. energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste management, electrical vehicles, from the year 2023 to 2050, with considering the equipment lifetime for reduction pathway, we found that Map Ta Put industrial estate can reduce GHG emission by 28.85 % of BAU in 2050. Energy efficiency measures have the highest potential to reduce GHG emission at 22.62 %. Although Map Ta Put industrial estate area can deploy the high-efficiency technology, it cannot achieve the carbon neutrality target. Therefore, carbon offsetting by forestry or carbon credit is one of the major alternative options for this estate to achieve the target. Estimation of the abatement cost per unit of GHG mitigation also prioritized in this study. The cost for achieving net zero emissions is higher than the investment for carbon neutrality by 4.67 %.