Even as world leaders desperately try to stitch together a deal at the floundering Copenhagen talks on climate change, Bhutan has taken a decision to remain a carbon neutral nation without exception.
The Himalayan nation, which has been witness to glacial lake bursts and floods in recent years, was amongst the first to recognise the consequences of climate change, its foreign minister Ugyen Tshering said here on Friday.
“We have made an unconditional declaration to be carbon neutral with or without any financial help from any country. We will undertake this without exception and this will our contribution to the world,” Tshering said on the sidelines of an event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
The minister added that Bhutan, which famously measures its performance and progress on the Gross National Happiness (GNH) index as opposed to the more common Gross Domestic Product (GDP) scale, was keen that other nations recognise the principle of having to make sacrifices for climate change mitigation.
Agriculture is the backbone of the Bhutanese economy, which contributes 33 per cent of the GDP and about employs about 70 per cent of the population. The country has a per capita GDP of about $835.