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The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture in Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand is home to over 65 million people, the majority of whom live in rural, agricultural areas.
Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice and is often referred to as “The Rice Bowl of Asia”.
Bangkok is home to 15% of Thailand's population and serves as the economic, social and political
center for not only Thailand, but the entire Mekong region. Climate change threatens all three
important sectors of Thailand economy: agriculture, tourism, and trade. While today Thailand only
produces 0.8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, between the years of 1991 and 2002 the CO2
emissions had doubled. The Thai government recognized its contribution to global warming and in
2007 they released the Action Plan on Global Warming Mitigation which called for reductions in
Bangkok’s greenhouse gas emissions by 15%. The effects of climate change which include higher
surface temperatures, floods, droughts, severe sea level rise and storms threaten Thailand’s rice
crops and put Bangkok at risk for being completely under water in 20 years. A single degree of
warming will destroy rice crops and only a few centimeters of sea level rise are needed to completely
submerge the capital city and devastate coastal tourism.
Agriculture is both a victim and contributor to climate change. Agriculture is forced to
adapt to challenges involving new soil conditions, more erratic weather patterns, and changing water
availability scenarios; while at the same time there is pressure to find ways to mitigate agriculture’s
extensive contribution to climate change. In 2005, Thailand’s methane emissions 91.6 million tons of
carbon dioxide equivalent, 51% of which was due to rice cultivation. When rice paddies are flooded,
methane is released through the fermentation of organic matter.