in case you're wondering no I'm not
wearing a dress and no I'm not saying
what I'm wearing underneath this is a
call this is my national dress this is
how all men dress in Bhutan that is how
our women dress like our women we men
get to wear pretty bright colors but
unlike our women we get to show off our
legs our national dress is unique but
this is not the only thing that's unique
about my country I promise to remain
carbon-neutral is also unique and this
is what I'd like to speak about today I
promise to remain carbon neutral but
before I proceed I should set you the
context I should tell you our story
Bhutan is a small country in the
Himalayas we've been called shangri-la
even the last shangri-la but let me tell
you right off the bat we are not
shangri-la my country is not one big
monastery populated with happy monks the
reality is that they are barely seven
hundred thousand of us sandwiched
between two of the most populated
countries on earth
China and India the reality is that we
are a small underdeveloped country doing
our best to survive but we're doing ok
we are surviving in fact we are thriving
and the reason we are thriving is
because we've been blessed with
extraordinary kings our enlightened
monarchs have worked tirelessly to
develop a country balancing economic
growth carefully with social development
environmental sustainability and
cultural preservation all within the
framework of good governance we call
this holistic approach to development
gross national happiness or GNH back in
the 1970s
our fourth king famously pronounced that
for Bhutan gross national happiness is
more important than gross national
product ever since all development in
Bhutan is driven by GNH a pioneering
vision that aims to improve the
happiness and well-being of our people
but that's easier said than done
especially when you are one of the
smallest economies in the world I entire
GDP is less than two billion dollars I
know that some of you here are worse
more individually than the entire
economy of my country so I economy is
small but here's where it gets
interesting education is completely free
all citizens are guaranteed free school
education and those that work hard are
given free college education health care
is also completely free medical
consultation medical treatment medicines
they are all provided by the state we
manage this because we use our limited
resources very carefully and because we
stay faithful to the core mission of GNH
which is development with values our
economy is small and we must strengthen
it
economic growth is important but that
economic growth must not come from
undermining our unique culture or our
pristine environment today our culture
is flourishing we continue to celebrate
our art and architecture food and
festivals
monks and monasteries
and yes we celebrate our national dress
- this is why I can wear my coal with
pride here's a fun fact
you're looking at the world's biggest
pocket it starts here goes round the
back and comes out from inside here in
this pocket we store all manner of
personal goods from phones and wallets
to iPads office files and books but
sometimes sometimes even precious cargo
so our culture is flourishing but so is
our environment 72% of my country is on
the forest cover our Constitution
demands that a minimum of 60% of
boudin's total land shall remain under
forest cover for all time
our Constitution this Constitution
imposes for us cover on us incidentally
our King use this Constitution to impose
democracy on us
you see we the people didn't want
democracy we didn't ask for it we didn't
demand it and we certainly didn't fight
for it instead our King imposed
democracy on us by insisting that he
included in the Constitution but he went
further he included provisions in the
Constitution that empower the people to
impeach the Kings and included
provisions in here that require all the
Kings to retire at the age of 65 fact is
we already have a king in retirement a
previous king the great force retired
ten years ago at the peak of his
popularity he was all of 51 years at
that time so as our saying 72% of our
countries under forest cover and all
that forest is pristine that's why we
are one of the few remaining global
biodiversity hotspots in the world and
that's why we are a carbon neutral
country in a world that is threatened
with climate change we are a carbon
neutral country turns out it's a big
deal of the 200 odd countries in the
world today it looks like we are the
only one that's carbon neutral actually
that's not quite accurate Bhutan is not
carbon neutral Bhutan is carbon negative
our entire country generates 2.2 million
tons of carbon dioxide but a forest a
sequester more than three times that
amount so we are a net carbon sink for
more than form
million tonnes of carbon dioxide each
year but that's not all we export most
of the renewable electricity we generate
from a fast flowing rivers so today
the clean energy that we export offsets
about six million tons of carbon dioxide
in a neighborhood by 2020 we'll be
exporting enough electricity to offset
17 million tons of carbon dioxide and if
we were to harness even half a
hydropower potential and that's exactly
what we are working at the clean green
energy that we export would offset
something like 50 million tons of carbon
dioxide a year that is more co2 than
what the entire city of New York
generates in one year so inside our
country we are a net carbon sink outside
we are offsetting carbon and this is
important stuff you see the world is
getting warmer and climate change is a
reality climate change is affecting my
country our glaciers are melting causing
flash floods and landslides which in
turn are causing disaster and widespread
destruction in our country I was at that
Lake recently it's stunning that's how
it looked ten years ago and that's how
it looked
twenty years ago just 20 years ago that
Lake didn't exist it was a solid glacier
a few years ago a similar lake breached
his dams and wrecked havoc in the
valleys below
that destruction was caused by one
glacial lake we have 2,700 of them to
contend with the point is this my
country and my people have done nothing
to contribute to global warming but we
are already bearing the brunt of its
consequences
and for a small poor country one that is
landlocked and mountainous it is very
difficult but we are not going to sit on
the hands doing nothing
we will fight climate change that's why
we have promised to remain carbon
neutral we first made this promise in
2009 during cop15 in Copenhagen but
nobody noticed governments were so busy
arguing with one another and blaming
each other for causing climate change
that when a small country raised our
hands and announced we promised to
remain carbon neutral for all time
nobody heard us nobody cared last
December in Paris at cop21 we reiterated
our promise to remain carbon neutral for
all time to come
this time we were heard we will notice
that everybody cared what was different
in Paris was that governments came
around together to accept the realities
of climate change and were willing to
come together and act together and work
together all countries from the very
small to the very large committed to
reduce the greenhouse gases emissions
the UN Framework Convention for climate
change says that if these so-called
intended commitments are kept we'd be
closer to containing global warming by 2
degrees Celsius
by the way I've requested the TED
organizers here to turn up the heat in
here by 2 degrees so if some of you are
feeling warmer than usual you know how
to blame it's crucial that all of us
keep our commitments as far as Bhutan is
concerned we will keep our promise to
remain carbon neutral here are some of
the ways we are doing it we're providing
free
city to our rural farmers the idea is
that with free electricity they will no
longer have to use firewood to cook
their food we are investing in
sustainable transport and subsidizing
the purchase of electric vehicles
similarly we are subsidizing the cost of
LED lights and our entire government is
trying to go paperless we are cleaning
up our entire country through clean
Bhutan a national program and we are
planting trees throughout our country
through green Bhutan another national
program but it is our protected areas
that are at the core of a carbon neutral
strategy our protected areas are a
carbon sink they are our lungs today
more than half our country is protected
as national parks nature reserves and
wildlife sanctuaries but the beauty is
that we've connected them all with one
another through a network of biological
corridors now what this means is that
our animals are free to roam throughout
our country
take the Steiger for example it was
spotted at 250 metres above sea level in
the hot subtropical jungles
two years later that same tiger was
spotted near 4000 metres in a cold
Alpine mountains
isn't that awesome we must keep it that
way we must keep our parks awesome
so every year we set aside resources to
prevent poaching hunting mining and
pollution in the parks and resources to
help communities who live in those parks
manage their forests adapt to climate
change and lead better lives while
continuing to live in harmony with
Mother Nature but that is expensive over
the next few years our small economy
won't have the
sources to cover all the costs that are
required to protect our environment in
fact when we run the numbers it looks
like it'll take us at least 15 years
before we can fully finance all our
conservation efforts but neither Bhutan
nor the world can afford to spend 15
years going backwards this is why His
Majesty the King started Bhutan for life
Bhutan for life gives us the time we
need it gives us breathing room it is
essentially a funding mechanism to look
after our parts to protect our parks
till our government can take over on our
own fully the idea is to raise the
transition fund from individual donors
cooperations and institutions but the
deal is closed
only after predetermined conditions are
met and all funds committed so
multi-party single closing an idea we
borrowed from wall street
this means that individual donors can
commit without having to worry that
they'll be left supporting an
underfunded plan it's something like a
Kickstarter project only with a 15 year
time horizon and millions of tonnes of
carbon dioxide at stake once the deal is
closed we use the transition fund to
protect a parks giving our government
time to increase our own funding
gradually till the end of the 15 year
period after that our government
guarantees full funding forever we
almost there
we expect to close later this year
naturally I'm pretty excited
the World Wildlife Fund is our principal
partner in this journey and I want to
give them a big shout out for the
excellent work they're doing in Bhutan
and across the world it is getting warm
in here
I thank you for listening to our story a
story of how we are keeping a promise to
remain carbon neutral a story of how we
are keeping our country pristine for
ourselves
our children for your children and for
the world but we are not here to tell
stories are we we are here to dream
together so in closing I'd like to share
one more dream that I have what if you
could mobilize our leadership and our
resources our influence and our passion
to replicate the bouton for life idea to
other countries so that they too can
conserve the protected areas for all
time after all there are many other
countries who face the same issues that
we face they do have natural resources
that can help win the world's fight for
sustainability only they may not have
the ability to invest in them now so
what if we set up alerts for life a
global fund to pick start the bouton for
life throughout the world I invite you
to help me to carry this dream beyond
the borders to all those who care about
a planet's future after all we're here
to dream together to work together to
fight climate change together to protect
our planet together because the reality
is we aren't together some of us might
dress differently but we ended together
thank you very much and thank you thank
you thank you