Tuesday 17 December 2013

Pursuit of Happiness


 Bhutan Haa Valley by Wikimedia

 An interesting opinion piece titled "Can Bhutan Achieve Hydropowered Happiness?" in the New York Times caught my eye recently. It appears that Bhutan plans to build an array of new dams and ramp up hydropower capacity from 1,480MW to 10,000 MW by 2020

Famed for its pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH), this set me wondering how Bhutan approaches the issue of energy use and climate change. 

gnp sign
Picture by Samir Mahta

Uddin et al (2007) explains that Bhutan is one of the world's least-urbanized countries. Apart from relying on agriculture and tourism, Bhutan gains much revenue from its sale of hydro-electricity to neighbouring India. Bhutan does not have much fossil energy resources and imports petroleum, while relying on its water and forest resources for most of its energy needs. The hydro-electricity sale also represents an important facet of Bhutan-India relations as Bhutan depends heavily on India for its economy and security (Nyaupane and Timothy, 2010). 


Meanwhile in November 2013, Bhutanese prime minister was reported by the Financial Times  to have announced that government vehicles will be replaced with electric cars, followed by the gradual replacement of taxis and family cars with locally assembled electric vehicles. The government realises that while Bhutan obtain proceeds from the sale of hydro-electricity to India, the majority of these gains are channeled towards importing fossil fuels for transport. Such a venture is believed to be highly suited for Bhutan as electricity is cheap, and most road trips are short.

It is heartening to learn that despite having low per-capita annual emissions of CO2, Bhutan chooses to pursue climate friendly measures, rather than continue with its reliance on fossil fuels. Hopefully more developing economies can consider similar approaches as part of their growth plans. 
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4 comments:

  1. Unknown20 December 2013 at 09:59

    Hi Joon,

    Very interesting to see a different government approach to energy supply. Did the government give a time frame for which they hope to achieve this?

    It seems to be a frequent issue that governments will only commit to short term changes (that will come into play while they are in power) therefore not making any sustainable long term changes. At least that seems to be one of the main issues for many more developed countries!

    Best wishes,
    Hannah

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    1. Unknown21 December 2013 at 16:24

      Hi Hannah,

      Thank you for the comment! From what I read, the government so far has plans to ramp up hydropower to 10,000MW by 2020, while the electric car programme could be rolled out within the next few years.

      I agree with your observation that governments may sometimes be myopic when dealing with environmental issues that may give limited short term returns. As such, I believe having political stability goes a long way when implementing long term environmental protection programmes.

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  2. Unknown21 December 2013 at 21:51

    Hi Joon,

    Thanks for a refreshing post! It's so nice to learn about countries that are trying to improve their environmental footprints despite being small global contributors. Hopefully Bhutan will lead by example and encourage other nations to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

    Cheers,
    Katherine

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    1. Unknown22 December 2013 at 15:08

      Hi Katherine,
      Thank you for the comment! I agree with you that all countries, both small and big contributors, have a part to play in combating the global warming situation based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Bhutan's example is indeed encouraging!

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