What kind of life will Bangkonians leave their children and grandchildren?

you know what they say about statistics.

64.3% of them are made up?

I don't believe any of those figures that show any kind of recyclable reaching the transfer station. I have seen the garbage collectors in action. If anything is recyclable, and has any value, it does not get by them, well, maybe recyclable paper, but no way does 5% recyclable plastic get by them. They are some of the best recyclers I have ever seen. Everything that goes past them is meticulously sorted, separated, and bagged.

I would go as far as saying that Bangkok leads any of the other cities that are used in the comparison in effective recycling efforts.

EGAT is obstructing advancement of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy policy in Thailand. There is collusion at the board of directors level between Bampu (coal), Ratchaburi Electric, PTT and other Power Producers with EGAT. There are directors from EGAT's Board that sit on Banpu & Ratchaburi's boards and vice-versa. This is conflict of interest by a public owned company like EGAT.

EGAT is suppose to act in the best interest of the Thai public producing affordable and environmentally safe electric power. This is not the case.

gee, is there political interference in thailand? i'm shocked.

i don't know how you can compare a country like thailand with USA or any other "western" country. come to saudi if you want to see inaction regarding a countries reaction to their effect on the "greenhouse" effect. saudi has got money rolling out its ears but does bugger all in relation to recycling etc. i don't think china, which is a BIG polluter could compare with thailand's recycling etc.

all i see in your "statistics" here is 2005, 2007. haven't you got the latest figures? 3 years, nearly 4 is a long time in technological terms.

johnno -- The trends haven't change much in the last 3 years, a little less CO2 because economic downturn.

One of the major benefits of Energy Efficiency is you avoid building expensive and polluting power plants while at the same holding down electrical rates. California was able to avoid building 6 or 7 nuke plants because of strong appliance standards and energy efficient building codes.

For the latest data see PREE_THAILAND.pdf posted on the net.

PEER REVIEW ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THAILAND (APEC)

18 March 2010

4.3.2 Recommendations Recommendation 16. It is recommended that the Thai Government should: • Expand many of its existing energy efficiency programs for the residential sector to achieve higher energy

savings so that it can better influence people’s knowledge and choices

• Develop an “Eco-Cities†program to enhance both residential and commercial energy efficiency among other sustainability and environmental goals Recommendation 17.

It is recommended that the Thai government should:

• Increase the existing commercial building energy codes every 3 years so that the code process becomes dynamic and more energy efficiency is required for commercial buildings on a regular basis, and

• the energy code should stress a performance path as well as a prescriptive path

• a strict Compliance enforcement program should be developed which focuses on verifying if the code was in fact followed during, and after, the building completion. In instances where codes are, or were, not followed, stiff penalties should be applied

• Develop an building energy code for residential buildings for new construction, and

• include application of the new residential codes to major renovations when they occur

• include “passive†design features in the new residential energy codes

• add “Cool Roofs†as a component of the new residential energy codes

Recommendation 18. It is recommended that the Thai Government should: • Enact regulations to make Building Labels mandatory for new construction for both commercial and residential buildings • Initiate a pilot program to make Building Labels mandatory for existing buildings at time of major renovation or sale

Recommendation 19. It is recommended that the Thai Government should:

• Increase tax incentives for commercial buildings that exceed building energy codes by 30% or more

• Include building envelope improvements in bank “household†financing mechanisms

• Develop other incentive programs for commercial and residential building envelope improvements, such as coupons or rebates on building envelope materials Recommendation 20. It is recommended that the Thai Government should:

• “Lead by Example†by having

DEDE demonstrate “Net-Zero Energy†buildings in key regions of Thailand

DEDE challenge other national, regional and local government agencies to match or exceed the best

energy efficient buildings it has developed and offer awards to those units of government that do so.