Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol Why go green? Discourse analysis of motivations for Thailand's oil and gas companies to invest in renewable energy Warathida Chaiyapa a, ⁎ ,1 , Miguel Esteban b , Yasuko Kameyama c a Chiang Mai University, School of Public Policy, 155 Northern Science Park, Building B, room 303-304, Su Thep, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand b Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University, 60-106, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan c Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research (Sustainable Social Systems Section), National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba-City, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Thailand Oil and Gas companies Discourse analysis Company annual reports Renewable energy investment ABSTRACT One of the main challenges of modern times is making the energy sector increase its uptake in renewable energy, and determining the role that fossil fuel companies can play in helping or hindering this process. The present study analyses the business strategy of PTT, a state-owned Oil and Gas company in Thailand, and two of its associates, Thai Oil Group and Bangchak Petroleum, to 1) examine renewable energy investment in the past 15 years and 2) shed light on discourses that the companies have used to legitimize their new businesses. For this purpose annual reports from the company websites were analysed, which highlighted how biofuels were the main priority for investment for all three companies since the early 2000s, whereas Solar PV was also recently targeted by PTT and Bangchak Petroleum. The discourses formed to legitimize their investment varied according to energy source and company. Discourses on complying with government policy, enhancing national energy security, and increasing the uptake in environmental friendly energy were found repeatedly in the annual reports of all three companies. Finally, the study provides policy recommendations on how Thai authorities can take a proactive role in helping O&G companies’ transition towards a low-carbon energy future. 1. Introduction Thailand, a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has already submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) -as agreed in the Paris Agreement of 2015-, where it intends to reduce greenhouse gas emis- sions by 20–25% from its 2005 levels by 2030. Prior to this recent commitment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), the government of Thailand had also been attempting to enhance energy security (as the country heavily depends on oil imports) by implementing the Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP). The plan was first launched in 2012, with a target to increase alternative energy con- sumption by 25% in 2021. In 2015 this target was revised to renewable energy contributing 30% of the total final energy consumption by 2036, which would also help Thailand work towards achieving goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The three main sectors in which the government aims to increase the uptake of renewable energy are heat generation, electricity generation, and liquid fuel for trans- portation. Currently, fossil fuel companies (particularly oil and gas) are the primary energy suppliers in Thailand for the latter two sectors. Overall, fossil fuel companies (and particularly oil and gas) represented almost 75% of final energy consumption in 2014 (DEDE, 2014). These companies have found that their business operations lie at the centre of the government's effort to move towards low carbon energy, though they must still ensure the long-term viability of their business. This dilemma is particularly important for the case of PTT Public Company Limited, a state-owned company which is mandated with promoting national energy security to ensure the economic growth of the country. Academic literature and media have long scrutinized big oil multi- national corporations –such as BP and Shell-, and the renewable energy investments or divestments they have made, which can be traced back to the first oil shocks in the 1970s (Kolk and Levy, 2001; Levy and Kolk, 2002; van de Wateringen, 2005; Davis, 2006; Levy, 2009; Sheppard, 2010; Pinkse and Van den Buuse, 2012; Dalby, 2014; Juhasz, 2013; Switzer, 2014 Morton, 2015; The Economist, 2015). However, to what extent Oil and Gas (O&G) companies -especially those which are state- owned in developing countries- welcome the development of disruptive renewable energy technologies appears to be under-examined in lit- erature. More importantly, there seems to be a wide gap in literature https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.064 Received 8 April 2016; Received in revised form 27 May 2018; Accepted 28 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. 1 http://spp.cmu.ac.th/webspp/ E-mail addresses: wwlnajah@gmail.com (W. Chaiyapa), esteban.fagan@gmail.com (M. Esteban), ykame@nies.go.jp (Y. Kameyama). Energy Policy 120 (2018) 448–459 0301-4215/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T