The Costs of Overcoming Social and Institutional Barriers to Implementing Co-Benefit Solutions in Thailand’s Transport and Residential Energy Sectors: Methods and Applications

Interest in co-benefits—the multiple benefits from mitigating climate change while addressing other sustainability challenges—has grown as policymakers seek to lower the costs of decarbonization. Much of this interest stems from data-driven models that quantify how much improved air quality, better health, and other co-benefits can offset those costs. However, co-benefits research often features transport, residential energy, and other solutions that face greater social and institutional barriers than economic barriers to achieving estimated gains. Few studies have assessed the costs of overcoming these barriers. The main objective of this study was to develop and apply methods for estimating these costs. Toward that end, this study developed a mixed method approach that used original survey and budgetary data to estimate the costs of clearing social and institutional barriers to implementing transport and residential energy solutions in Thailand. The results revealed that the costs of overcoming key social and institutional barriers were approximately USD 170–270 million per year from 2022 to 2032 for the transport sector in Thailand. The costs of overcoming social and institutional barriers for residential energy solutions are approximately USD 0.07–0.1 million per year over a comparable period. The results suggested that the costs of overcoming barriers were likely lower than the benefits for all solutions and greater for transportation (driven by the implementation of inspection and maintenance programs) than residential energy in Thailand. More generally, the results underlined a need for greater integration between work on co-benefits and transaction costs to assist policymakers in understanding how much investing in institutional capacity building, coordination, awareness raising, and other enabling reforms can help align a healthier climate with other development priorities.