• OPINION

  Can river meet all needs at same time?

  Oped, Published on 17/11/2023

  » Population and economic growth -- including the switch to electric vehicles and the rapidly expanding use of digital technology, leads to higher global electricity demand, which is expected to double by 2050, according to In McKinsey's report "The Global Energy Perspective 2021".

• OPINION

  Laos' heritage town needs preservation

  News, Tom Fawthrop, Published on 27/05/2023

  » Few sites anywhere in Asia can match the charm and cultural importance of Luang Prabang, the old royal capital of Laos situated on the Mekong River. With a legacy dating back some 800 years, the town and its verdant riverside surroundings were inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1995.

• OPINION

  Mekong River agency must step up

  Oped, Published on 01/04/2023

  » This week from April 2-5, the leaders and relevant ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam will gather in Vientiane, Laos, to reaffirm their commitment to the sustainable development and management of the Mekong's mighty river system.

• OPINION

  An Egat shakeup is long overdue

  Oped, Published on 30/03/2023

  » News of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) signing a power purchase deal for the planned Pak Lay dam in Laos last week almost slipped under the radar, such is the media attention lavished on the government's preparations for the next poll.

• OPINION

  BCG Economy and Apec: Just empty rhetoric?

  Oped, Published on 19/11/2022

  » The Apec Leaders' Summit in Bangkok this week includes an agreement to work toward the "Bangkok Goals" on Bio-economy, Circular Economy and Green (BCG) Economy beyond national borders. Many have raised the question of whether the Thai government, as host to the summit, genuinely aims to push forward this goal. Or is it just a greenwashing policy in support of business as usual?

• OPINION

  Come clean on Ft charge

  News, Editorial, Published on 08/09/2022

  » The cabinet decision to guarantee a huge loan to be taken out by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to ease the effect of the higher fuel tariff (Ft) seems a bad idea.

• OPINION

  Time to walk the dam talk

  Oped, Editorial, Published on 24/08/2022

  » The Supreme Administrative Court's decision last week to dismiss the Xayaburi Dam lawsuit should serve as a reminder of an issue rarely mentioned -- the Thai government's unrealised pledge to promote environmental conservation and human rights protection in transboundary investments.

• OPINION

  Luang Prabang Dam a threat to World Heritage?

  News, Philip Hirsch, Published on 29/06/2021

  » The Lao government is intent on building a dam on the Mekong just upstream of the country’s old royal capital. Despite the project having undergone design work, environmental impact assessment and a prior consultation process managed by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), no heritage impact assessment has been carried out to date — despite requests by Unesco’s World Heritage Centre dating back as far as 2012 that the Lao government should do so. Ahead of next month’s World Heritage Committee meeting in China, of which Thailand is a current member, Unesco has asked that no construction work go ahead on the dam until a full heritage assessment has been completed.

• OPINION

  Fight for the Mekong gathers pace

  Oped, Passakorn Jumlongrach, Published on 26/11/2020

  » More than 20 years ago, when two Chiang Rai-based environmentalists, Niwat Roikaew and Somkiat Kuenwongsa, learned that the Chinese government were blasting rapids in the upper Mekong River from Yunnan to Myanmar and Laos to clear the way for large commercial vessels, they started worrying.

• OPINION

  Dams lead to extinction

  News, Editorial, Published on 08/01/2020

  » Before being officially declared extinct by scientists late last month, the Chinese paddlefish, a native to the Yangtze River system, had been listed along with the Mekong giant catfish as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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