ABSTRACT
Since the establishment of the first Thailand Climate Change Master Plan (2015–2050) in 2012, there has been an increase in the number of local, national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations engaged in climate-related projects in various parts of Thailand. Improving climate literacy for lay Thai people has become a crucial step to be taken before a vulnerability assessment and policy formulation are made. Three groups of organizations framed climate change based on their goals and discursive practices. For Climate Story Listeners, climate change is a powerful environmental discourse used by or against ethnic minority groups. For Climate Service Providers, climate change is a global issue that lay people can learn, monitor and manage. For Climate Policy Facilitators, climate change offers a new development opportunity under the guidance of inter-governmental collaboration. Nevertheless, the multiple discourses and meanings of “climate change” sometimes cut against, and are removed from, the vernacular Thai conception of “weather changes” which is cultural-, spiritual- and place-based, and is unrelated to greenhouse gas reduction. It is also important to ask how the Thailand Climate Change Master Plan might govern multiple forms of climate knowledge, and how this might contribute to long-term climate resilience in Thailand and global climate governance.
