Sustainability in an Emerging Nation: The Bhutan Case Study

Abstract

With the onset of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world's nations were to create economic development integrating environmental and social improvement. However, there is still much uncertainty in the world of politics and academia as to whether these integrated goals are achievable and how they can fit best with diverse national and local contexts. Thus, there is always a need to find nations that can show how it can be achieved in different settings shaped by local experiences, challenges, and opportunities. Bhutan could be one of these nations as it could be argued that it has, to an extent, simplified the task to fit its values and aspirations. Bhutan has three major goals that need to be integrated: Wealth (GDP) to align with their middle-income aspiration, thus providing opportunities for employment, Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) that are maintained at a carbon neutral level, which is beyond most national commitments, and Bhutan's renowned Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, which covers their socio-economic goals. We show this integration and then synthesize some core findings from a literature review on the theory and practice of sustainable development through the lens of the three integrated goals of Bhutan, thereby placing the case of Bhutan into the wider literature. This paper seeks to show how one emerging nation can model an operational sustainability policy. The paper highlights some plausible synergies between the 17 SDGs and the domains and indicators of GNH that could help nations struggling with how they can create sensible sustainability outcomes from these new global agendas. Bhutan has framed the GNH as its contribution to sustainability. However, this paper suggests that it may be the integration of the GNH with GDP and GHG that is its real contribution. Furthermore, Bhutan's 3G model of fully integrating GNH, GDP, and GHG suggests a way forward for achieving their imperatives of economic growth, whilst enabling the SDGs and achieving the difficult climate change goal. It may also suggest a model for other nations wanting to find a complementary way of framing economic growth, the 17 SDGs, and the Paris Agreement into a coherent set of policies.

Carbon Neutral Bhutan: Sustaining Carbon Neutral Status Under Growth Pressures.

“…Several countries have pledged to become CN [12], though Bhutan is one of the very few that have actually achieved this status. Carbon neutrality has many de nitions but the one Bhutan has used is based on neutralizing greenhouse emissions with forest-based carbon sequestration [11]. The broadly accepted intention of CN is to balance the carbon going into the atmosphere with the inputs and outputs of a product or service and requires the measurement, reduction, and nally offsetting of emissions [13,14].…”

“…Yangka [18] also cast doubt on the long-term carbon neutrality of Bhutan based on the extrapolation of carbon emission levels from 2005 to 2050. Thus, the challenge for Bhutan is how it can remain CN under growth pressures [11].…”

“…The three G's -the interconnected goals. Adapted from [11] (GDP -gross domestic product; GNH -gross national happiness; GHG -greenhouse gas) The cost of aggregated carbon neutral measures (US$/tCO2e)…”

Technocentrism and Ecocentrism

“…Bhutan has a unique and fascinating approach to sustainable development which covers three main goals. These three goals include; wealth that is GDP, in order to provide employment opportunities and align with their middle income objective, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) which involves keeping carbon at a neutral level, and the countries well-known Gross National Happiness (GNH) index that contains the socio-economic targets (Yangka et al, 2018). Bhutan stressed that development must be socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically sustainable.…”

“…The percentage of contribution of the three major economic activities to GDP has shifted; for example, primary sector contribution, which includes agriculture, mining, and forestry, have declined from 56% to 27% between 1980 and 2003. While the secondary sector comprised of construction, energy, and manufacturing, raised from 11% to 41%, whereas 33% remained constant for the tertiary sector (Yangka et al, 2018). This means that Bhutan is moving gradually from a traditional agrarian and forestry-based economy to market based modern economy.…”