The Kingdom of Bhutan lies deep in the Himalayas, sandwiched between China and India. Many of you know that China and India are some of the biggest air polluters globally, responsible for 33.6% of CO2 emissions combined. A reasonable question would be how tiny Bhutan achieved such a fantastic title of being the first carbon-negative country in the world. What is more, they have committed to reach zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and produce zero waste. Well, we will explore their illuminating story in this article, and by the end of the reading, you will learn how Bhutan has set a world standard for environmental preservation by putting happiness before economic growth.
Bhutan’s success story began in the 1970s when the King of Bhutan declared: ‘Gross National Happiness is more important than national product growth.’ Since then, all political decisions have been based on a Gross National Happiness (GNH index), and economic growth has not been prioritized. Bhutan has a population of 700,000 people, and the country’s entire GDP is less than 2 billion USD. Their economy is small, but education is entirely free for all citizens. Medicine is also provided by the state – medical consultations, treatment, medicines. Economic growth is, of course, essential, but it must not come from undermining unique culture or prestigious environment. Hydropower, cement, wood, and food products constitute the primary industries in Bhutan. Agriculture, construction, electricity and water supply are also significant activities in the country. Bhutan’s main exports include electricity, cardamom, gypsum, timber, handicrafts, cement, fruit, precious stones, and spices. The country’s largest trading partner is India, while Bangladesh, Japan, Singapore, and China are amongst other key trading partners.
The environment and nature of Bhutan are spectacular; indeed, it is one of the few remaining global biodiversity hotspots in the world. 72% of Bhutan’s territory is under forest cover, and it is the first country to incorporate in its Constitution a clause that a minimum of 60% of Bhutan’s total land shall remain under forest cover for all times. The government is staying solid about such commitment and promoting these ideas within citizens. In June 2015, volunteers set a world record in Bhutan by planting 49,672 trees in just one hour. A solid half of the country’s territory is national parks, nature reserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. All nature’s territories are connected to one another with a network of biological corridors. The government takes preventative measures against poaching, hunting, mining, and any pollution in natural parks. Local communities living in protected areas have access to government subsidies for sustainably managing their forests and adapting to climate change. The government has also started providing rural farmers with free electricity to lessen their dependence on wood stoves for cooking.
The country generated 1.93 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020, but its forests serve as a net carbon sink for more than 4 million tons of CO2 each year. Hydropower represents a significant share of the national economy and provided one-fifth of domestic revenue and one-third of export earnings in 2016. Rapid electrification in the last decade has helped shift consumption away from biomass, mainly fuelwood, to electricity, which satisfies around one-third of total energy demand and is primarily produced from hydropower. Experts say that renewable electricity capacity could be enough to offset 50 million tons of CO2 a year. Bhutan says that by 2025, increased hydroelectricity exports will let the country offset up to 22.4 million tons of CO2 per year in the region. Concerns are now being raised about possible ecological damage from a growing number of dams and hydropower projects, but that’s another story and is not in scope for this article.
Bhutan was the first country in the world to make a promise to remain carbon neutral in COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. (These are annual United Nations Conventions on Climate Change, which started in the mid-1990s to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. COP stands for Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of parties of the Kyoto Protocol.) Back in 2009, there were no other countries in the world with such ambitious commitments, so the whole world recognized Bhutan’s achievements in COP 21 in Paris in 2015. The main programs of being carbon negative are already mentioned free electricity to rural farmers, investing in sustainable transport, and subsidizing the purchase of electric vehicles. For instance, one of the creative environmental initiatives in Bhutan includes a partnership with Nissan to provide the country with electric cars. Bhutan hopes to eventually replace all vehicles that rely on fossil fuels with those that run on electricity. The government is going paperless and subsidizing the cost of LED lamps for people. Since 1999 there has been a plastic bags ban in Bhutan, and tobacco is almost wholly illegal. The ratio of people to landmass is just one-tenth the population and has a long development path—the first road was only built in the 1960s, which also means people were very slow to get cars. Thimphu is the only capital in Asia that has no traffic lights.
Bhutan is trying out several solutions, including nationwide programs of recycling and cleaning and planting trees – Clean Bhutan and Green Bhutan. Bhutan for Life is another ambitious project in partnership with WWF. It is a transition fund that aims to raise 40 million USD from a group of donors – wealthy individuals, corporations, and institutions. Think about it as a Kickstarter project with a 15-year time horizon. Payments from this fund will be distributed annually over 15 years to compensate people who have suffered because of human-wildlife conflict, manage forests and help find sources of income other than forest products. WWF has helped conserve wildlife in Colombia, Peru, and Brazil with the same funds, so all eyes are now turned towards Bhutan to see how well Bhutan for Life will do.
Another out-of-box initiative of preserving nature and unique culture is a travel ban. Many of you could have been wondering reading this post from the beginning, why despite its appeal, not many people travel to Bhutan. The answer is straightforward. The government of Bhutan has put steps in place to prevent massive amounts of tourists from entering the country at any given time. The first tourists were allowed in only in 1970. A tightly controlled tourist policy, which makes tourists pay $250 per day, has restricted the flow of visitors and kept forests unspoiled. The fee can confuse or put off potential visitors, so it’s worth clarifying what it is. It covers lodging in three-star accommodations, all meals, a licensed tour guide, camping and trekking equipment, domestic travel (excluding flights), and taxes and fees. A daily sustainable development fee of $65 is also included in the package. This goes towards funding education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation, along with the building of infrastructure to accommodate tourism.
Bhutan has even bigger plans for the future. By 2030 Bhutan plans to reach zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to produce zero waste. This means putting a comprehensive plan of action into place, with items such as increasing its reliance on renewable energy sources – like wind, biogas, and solar power. However, the world is changing around Bhutan, and policymakers need to consider new factors now. Glaciers are beginning to melt, flash floods and heavy rains—and even droughts—are common, and temperatures are climbing.
On the other hand, Bhutan changed as a country and culture. They are undergoing a demographic shift, with the young population moving to the cities searching for jobs and leaving villages as they don’t want to work on the land. Young Bhutanese are being exposed to ways of life other than their own through the Internet and social media; some rebel against government controls. More people prefer to own a car despite 100% tax. Bhutan’s agricultural income is declining as most people are subsistence farmers, and the tiny amount of agricultural land can’t support the increasing population. The country is heavily dependent on imports—nearly 50% of its rice comes from India. As Bhutan’s timber requirements increase, the government expects to import timber from India. Democracy may well make it tougher to take strong measures.
We have three carbon-negative countries in the world. A small rainforest country north of Brazil – Suriname – is already a member of this tiny but growing club. Panama is expected to her certified in early 2022. At the recent COP 26 in Glasgow in November 2021, these three countries formed a formal alliance by signing a declaration calling for international finance, preferential trade, carbon pricing, and other measures to support their economies and other ‘carbon negative’ countries yet to emerge. They have in common is robust protection of their carbon-absorbing forests alongside increasingly harsh measures to hold down climate-changing emissions, including efforts to adopt renewable energy, electrify transport and cut waste.
The country has proven reserves of beryl, copper, graphite, lead, mica, pyrite, tin, tungsten, and zinc. However, the country’s mineral deposits remain untapped, as it prefers to conserve the environment rather than exploit and destroy it for money. Bhutan’s unwavering focus on reducing its negative impact on the environment and promoting environmentally-friendly practices has had positive results within the country and worldwide. It shows the world what is possible and how any country can reduce its carbon emissions.
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