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Policy intervention and its consequences on the environment to combat climate change– A case from Bhutan

The world today is racing in the phase of the industrialization revolution where the concern is raised in many forums about the carbon footprint due to manmade actions giving thought-provoking highlight of actions towards energy usages and consequences to the environment. Strong linkage exists between energy and environments having direct relevance to the country's GDP. Countries are considering policies and strategies towards reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is prime GHG that are released due to human activities. The developing countries are facing stiff challenges to balance their economic development and their dependency on the usage of energies. The study aimed to find out the cases of Bhutan with a target to understand the key actions that the country has been taking especially through policy interventions. The method used in this paper is a qualitative approach through collections of secondary data through literature review and drawing the results through the evidence in the forms of figures and tables. Results reveals that Bhutan has adopted multiple policies interventions, strategies and timely actions for environment and climate changes in fulfilling the ‘Paris Agreement on Climate Change’. Bhutan has been instrumental in the implementations of relevant policies/regulations which is guided by the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) which follows the middle path of holistic socioeconomic development for economic growth as well in-line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bhutan proudly stands as being the carbon-negative country where its annual consumption of CO2 is much more compared to what it produced.

Keywords:

Bhutan, Greenhouse Gas (GHG), Gross National Happiness (GNH), Holistic socioeconomic development Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

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