Financing the Shift: Sarinee Achavanuntakul on How Banks Can Lead Thailand’s Clean Energy Transition

This interview was originally published on the Southeast Asia Information Platform for the Energy Transition.

Across Southeast Asia, the transition to clean energy is gaining momentum, but progress remains uneven. While countries have set ambitious net-zero targets, the region continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels, with coal and natural gas still dominating power generation. Thailand faces similar hurdles in its energy transition. While it has made strides in renewable energy deployment, it remains heavily dependent on fossil gas, which is still classified as a transition fuel in national energy plans.  

In this month’s SIPET Transition Finance Series, we speak with Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Managing Director of Climate Finance Network Thailand (CFNT), an independent research organization dedicated to advancing sustainable finance in Thailand and the region. Sarinee is a former investment banker, turned public intellectual and thought leader in the area of development broadly, and in recent years, she has focused more of her work on climate finance and sustainable investment.  Along with some colleagues, Sarinee set up CFNT last year.  She and her CFNT colleagues are working extensively on financial sector policies, corporate sustainability, and the risks of stranded assets related to Thailand’s energy transition. 

In this conversation with Peter du Pont, Senior Advisor to SIPET and Co-CEO of Asia Clean Energy Partners, Sarinee offers insights into the current state of transition finance, challenges banks face in aligning with climate goals, Thailand’s policy and regulatory barriers, and the role of disclosure standards and stranded asset risks in shaping the region’s financial future. 

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