Thai MPs reject Senate changes to clean air bill

Thailand’s House of Representatives voted 414 to two on 3 September 2026 to reject Senate amendments to the Clean Air Management Bill, sending the legislation to a 20-member joint committee for further review.

The committee will comprise 10 MPs and 10 senators. The House vote followed the Senate’s changes to provisions covering provincial clean air committees, pollution-control measures and business representation.

The Senate removed provisions that would have required deposits on products considered likely to cause pollution, with refunds available when residual materials were properly managed instead of burnt. It also removed Section 41 and Part 5, including Sections 175 and 176.

The amended draft expanded designated business representation on national oversight and technical committees, as well as on provincial clean air committees. It also added safeguards requiring economic measures to avoid duplicate clean air fees, unreasonable public burdens and unfair restrictions on competition.

The Senate retained Section 211, concerning potential joint liability for financial institutions supporting pollution sources in control areas without adequate risk assessment and monitoring. It also retained Chapter 7, which establishes the Clean Air Fund.

Phattharaphong Leelaphat, a Chiang Mai MP from the People’s Party, said the Senate’s changes favoured large businesses, weakened public rights and obstructed decentralisation. He said the Senate had reduced industrial fines from B50 million to B5 million while retaining a two-year prison term.

“For a large factory, B5 million is a cost of doing business, not a punishment,” Phattharaphong said.

He also said the Senate had narrowed the proposed pollutant release and transfer register to air-pollution data, removed a House provision requiring public consultations for some polluting projects, and deleted rights relating to environmental justice, including interim relief and class-action proceedings.

Phattharaphong said the House draft would have made the elected chief executive of the provincial administrative organisation chair of the provincial clean air committee, with the governor supervising its work. The Senate instead made the governor chair.

He said the joint committee would seek to restore provisions removed from the House draft.