Thailand should chart its own path on climate

In recent years, climate anxiety has taken over many Western governments and most international organisations. The result has been ruinous policies that help little but undermine future prosperity needed to deal with a host of other problems. Fortunately, Thailand can avoid repeating these mistakes.

- Bjorn Lomborg

Climate change is a man-made problem, but campaigners and irresponsible politicians have distorted this out of all proportion and now falsely call it an existential threat that could eradicate humanity. This exaggeration grossly misrepresents the science in the UN Climate Panel reports. Moreover, it is repudiated by the world’s leading climate economists, including the only one to win the Nobel Prize. The cost of no further action on climate is equivalent to lowering GDP by 2-3% by century's end — a problem, not the end of the world.

Yet, the incessant scare stories have driven some Western governments to enact immensely costly policies. The UK has gone further in climate policies over the past two decades than nearly any other country. As a result, the inflation-adjusted electricity price, weighted across households and industry, has tripled from 2003 to 2023. By comparison, the US electricity price has remained almost unchanged over the same period.