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.
Highlights
In the 1980’s, sustainability became a new global concept that emerged from the inadequacies of single-minded economic development [1]
The conclusion from the UN’s World Commission for Environment and Development was that economic growth and development was not the problem in itself, but that environmental and social issues had to be improved in the process and not left to trickle down later
The pursuit of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) philosophy and the hope to remain carbon neutral resonate with the current global sustainable development goals [3] and the climate goal to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 ◦C, which inevitably requires net zero carbon emissions [29]. To achieve such desirable yet challenging tasks, Newton and Newman [30] reflect that normative goals such as restoring environmental quality, improving human well-being, efficient use of resources, emissions reduction, and others should be addressed through a sustainability transition
Summary
In the 1980’s, sustainability became a new global concept that emerged from the inadequacies of single-minded economic development [1]. For the past 30 years, many international conferences and agreements have been helping define the nature of sustainable development, from Rio in 1992 to Rio plus 20 [2] For most of this time, the world has focused on sustainability as the responsibility of the developed world with aid and facilitation of emerging economieSsusttoainsahbialitpye20t1h8,e1i0r, xecFOonR oPEmERicRdEVeIvEeWlopment to be more sustainable. This has cha2nogfe1d6 and the neiwntewrnoartlidonoaflScuosntafeirneanbcleesDaenvdelaogprmeeemnetnGtsoahlasv[e3]biesemn ahkeilnpginigt vdeerfyinceletahrethnaattuthree fouftusruestdaeinpaebnleds on all natdioevnesl,oipnmcleundt,infrgomtheRieominer1g9in92gtwo oRrilodp, ltuosd2o0 e[2c]o.nFoomr micodset voefltohpismtiemnte,stuhsetawinoarlbdlyh.aTshfoiscupsaepdeornseeks to shoswusthaoinwaboilniteyeams ethrgeinregspnoantsioibnil,itByhouftathne, idsedvemlopoendstwraotrilndgwhiothwatiod daondsufastcailintaatibolne dofeveemloerpgminegnt in their feuctounroem. H2.appCianrebsosn: EGmroissssioNnas:tiGoHnaGl tHhaatpips imnaeisnsta(GinNedHa)t caocnartibnouninneguttoragl rleovwel.; and
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