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ACCEPT II Attended ASEAN Workshop on Carbon Footprint for ASEAN Countries

Bangkok, 22-25 May 2023

ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project Phase II (ACCEPT II) representative has been invited to attend a workshop of ‘Carbon Footprint of Renewable Energy for ASEAN Countries” on 22 – 25 May 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. 

  • The workshop has been jointly organized by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) with a support from the Japan – ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF). 
  • The workshop highlighted Thailand’s experience on constructing national Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and its data base; and shared the benefits and lesson learnt on it to ASEAN countries.  

The three days workshop has brought together experts from the ASEAN Member States to share knowledge and experience on conducting a carbon footprint assessment for industrial sector in their country. Experts from Japan national institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) who were Dr Kiyotaka Tahara and Dr Masayuki Sagisaka have been invited to share experience and knowledge of Japan’s experience on LCA and its database to the participants. The workshop is fully supported by JAIF with objectives to provide participants with knowledge and methodology on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Carbon Footprint (CF) as well as knowledge to create national LCA database.  

Dr Julathep Kajornchaiyakul, Executive Director of MTEC-NSTDA opened the workshop and welcomed the participants. He noted the importance of the workshop to share Thailand’s experience on developing the national LCA database to participants and hoped it could be useful for them on constructing national LCA database for their countries in future. Muhammad Shidiq, Senior Researcher of ACCEPT II has also delivered a remark and noted that the importance of the workshop to increase knowledge and understanding of the member states on the LCA and CF as well as to strengthen the collaboration between ASEAN and Japan on energy and climate topics. AIST representatives, Dr Masayuki has also noted that the workshop is also important to deliver knowledge on how Japan developed the LCA database to help the country measuring its carbon footprint.  

Figure 1.  ACCEPT II representative with All speakers, participants and organizers in the workshop.  

The first day of the workshop highlighted the importance and benefit of LCA and CF to understand the carbon emissions of a country or industry and how the action plan or strategies should be constructed to minimize the emissions. Representatives for each AMS have also delivered key updates on the country action plan, strategies and roadmap to minimize the emissions and achieve the country net zero emissions. Prof Shabbir Gheewala and Associate Prof Thapat Silalatruksa of KMUTT have delivered methodology of LCA development and followed by discussion with participants. Participants have noted that some countries have still lack understanding on LCA and CF as well as do not have the emissions database and emission factor yet that may hamper them to work on LCA or CF calculations. Therefore, it is expected that the countries may also obtain both technical and funding support to further increase LCA understanding and help in constructing its national LCA database to be used in the country.  

The second day of the workshop has delivered case studies and experience from both Japan and Thailand on how to create LCA database and use it to calculate the carbon emissions. Industrial sectors have also been invited to come to deliver an industry case study. Representative from Thailand sugar company, Mitr Phol group and Thailand transportation company, Energy Absolute Company Limited have delivered a case study on how the LCA and its database are useful for them to calculating carbon emissions and how the company may design the company policy and strategies to minimize the emissions and achieve the company net zero target. Participants were very enthusiastic on the second day where they could directly learn from both government and industries experience. The participants also expected that the experts could also be contacted, supported or worked together on constructing LCA databases and using LCA and CF for their country in the future.  

Figure 2.  Muhammad Shidiq (first right) with other speakers (Dr Jitti Mungkalasiri of NSTDA, Dr Kiyotaka Tahara of AIST, and Dr Masayuki Sagisaka of AIST) in the workshop.  

The last day was very interesting since the participants were given a CF tool and practiced calculating carbon footprint using the tool. A CF tool has been designed and provided by NSTDA. The participants highlighted the importance and benefits of the hand-in experience on calculating the carbon footprint. They hoped that the tools could be used in calculating their country carbon footprint and emissions.  

As a follow up actions after the workshop, the experts expected that the knowledge and methodology can be useful and used by each country in future. The organizers hoped that they could be engaged with all experts and participants to explore potential collaborations and work together in calculating carbon footprint in future. The participants acknowledged that the workshop was very useful and benefits for them. Moreover, The participants hoped that they can be engaged with all to explore collaboration and work together on LCI and carbon footprint.  

Detailed information on ACCEPT II can be found at https://accept.aseanenergy.org/ 

ACCEPT II welcomes any collaboration, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] 

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