Assessment of land-based negative emissions options in Thailand | |
| Author | Norawit Suwannakarn |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.CC-20-03 |
| Subject(s) | Carbon sequestration Carbon dioxide mitigation Climate change mitigation |
| Note | A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Climate Change and Sustainable Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Negative emissions, i.e. reducing CO2 from the atmosphere, expecting to decrease net anthropogenic emissions to below the rate of natural sinks, is imperative to bring the average global temperature below the 1.5 °C target as specified under the Paris agreement. Promising matured and partly matured negative emission technologies, such as 1. Enhanced Weathering (EW), 2. Biochar, 3. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), 4 Direct Air Capture (DAC), 5. Afforestation & Reforestation (AR), 6. Soil Carbon Sequestration (SCS), 7. Ocean Fertilization, and 8. Ocean Alkalinity, are available for countries to reduce their emissions. And country specific research on the negative emissions is needed for identifying and assessing climate mitigation potential of these technologies. This study aimed to establish an assessment of negative emissions technology implementation in Thailand. The study focused on five land-based options, i.e. EW, Biochar, BECCS, AR and SCS. Specifically, to identify available land areas, analyses, and assess the technical potentials, and synergies and trade-offs of the negative emission technologies. The required data for GIS analysis in this study obtained from various trustful government agencies. New land factors for estimating available land areas for implementation are added into this study. The assessment of negative emissions technologies carried out by using the model which have been tested and used by studies in the UK, Scotland, and Ireland. Additionally, this study also has proposed a new implementation scenario; intensive-implementation scenario, for maximizing the negative emission potential in Thailand which is used for comparing with the base scenario; marginal land implementation scenario. This study found that up to 32% of the total land areas of Thailand is available for implementing negative emission technologies. However, the available lands varied among the technologies as they have different land requirement. EW is the technology which hold the largest available lands, meanwhile AR hold the smallest land. Thailand can remove around 1.85 and up to 140.47 Mt CO2eq. per year under the marginal land implementation scenario and 480.62 Mt CO2eq. per year for the intensive-implementation scenario from the atmosphere. The potential varies depending on the size of the land used for implementation and the selected technology. To be more realistic, some options are selected to be implemented and some are not. The total negative emissions potential being estimated to be around 81.47 to 184.55 Mt CO2eq. per year for the base case scenario. And the intensive case scenario potential is estimated to be around 256.65 – 430.27 Mt CO2eq. annually. So, Thailand has a possibility to compensate their all greenhouse gas emissions by negative emissions technology implementation. However, there is a concern on the capacity and size of carbon sink which might reduce the lifetime of negative emissions technology implementation. AR and SCS would stop absorbing carbon dioxide by 2050 if they were implemented in 2030. Meanwhile, BECCS could be effective until 2050 EW has the highest implementation cost meanwhile SCS provide the negative cost. AR seems to have the highest impact on the surface albedo. BECCS and Biochar could provide some energy supply in spite of energy requirement. However, there is a needed for further study for local context to reflect the reality of each technology. |
| Year | 2020 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CC) |
| Chairperson(s) | Salam, P. Abdul; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Dhakal, Shobhakar;Shrestha, Rajendra P.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2020 |