bette badewanne 170 x 70

in case you are wondering, no, i'm not wearing a dress, and no, i'm not sayingwhat i'm wearing underneath. (laughter) this is a gho. 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 thingthat's unique about my country. our promise to remaincarbon neutral is also unique, and this is what i'd liketo speak about today, our 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 countryin 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 thatthere are barely 700,000 of us sandwiched between twoof 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 are doing ok. we are surviving. in fact, we are thriving, and the reason we are thrivingis because we've been blessed with extraordinary kings. our enlightened monarchshave worked tirelessly to develop our country,

balancing economic growth carefully with social development,environmental sustainability and cultural preservation, all within the frameworkof good governance. we call this holistic approachto development "gross national happiness," or gnh. back in the 1970s, our fourth king famouslypronounced that for bhutan, gross national happiness is more importantthan gross national product.

(applause) ever since, all development in bhutanis driven by gnh, a pioneering visionthat aims to improve the happiness and well-being of our people. but that's easier said than done, especially when you are oneof the smallest economies in the world. our entire gdp is lessthan two billion dollars. i know that some of you hereare worth more --

individually than the entire economy of my country. so our economy is small, but here is where it gets interesting. education is completely free. all citizens are guaranteedfree school education, and those that work hardare given free college education. healthcare is also completely free. medical consultation,medical treatment, medicines:

they are all provided by the state. we manage this because we use our limitedresources very carefully, and because we stay faithfulto 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 comefrom undermining our unique culture or our pristine environment.

today, our culture is flourishing. we continue to celebrateour art and architecture, food and festivals, monks and monasteries. and yes, we celebrateour national dress, too. this is why i can wear my gho with pride. here's a fun fact: you're lookingat the world's biggest pocket. it starts here,

goes around 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 percent of my countryis under forest cover. our constitution demandsthat a minimum of 60 percent of bhutan's total landshall remain under forest cover for all time. our constitution, this constitution, imposes forest cover on us. incidentally, our kingused this constitution

to impose democracy on us. you see, we the peopledidn'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 include itin the constitution. but he went further. he included provisions in the constitution that empower the peopleto impeach their kings,

and included provisions in herethat require all our kings to retire at the age of 65. fact is, we already havea king in retirement: our previous king, the great fourth, retired 10 years ago at the peak of his popularity. he was all of 51 years at that time. so as i was saying, 72 percent of our countryis 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 area carbon neutral country. in a world that is threatenedwith climate change, we are a carbon neutral country. turns out, it's a big deal. of the 200-odd countriesin 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 generates2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, but our forests, they sequestermore than three times that amount, so we are a net carbon sink for more than four million tonsof carbon dioxide each year. but that's not all.

we export mostof the renewable electricity we generate from our fast-flowing rivers. so today, the clean energy that we export offsets about six million tonsof carbon dioxide in our neighborhood. by 2020, we'll be exportingenough electricity to offset 17 million tonsof carbon dioxide. and if we were to harnesseven half our hydropower potential, and that's exactly what we are working at, the clean, green energy that we export

would offset something like50 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. that is more co2 than what the entire cityof 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 disasterand widespread destruction in our country. i was at that lake recently. it's stunning. that's how it looked 10 years ago, and that's how it looked 20 years ago. just 20 years ago, that lake didn't exist. it was a solid glacier. a few years ago, a similar lake

breached its dams and wreaked havoc in the valleys below. that destructionwas caused by one glacier 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 bruntof its consequences. and for a small, poor country,one that is landlocked and mountainous,

it is very difficult. but we are not going to siton our hands doing nothing. we will fight climate change. that's why we have promisedto remain carbon neutral. we first made this promise in 2009 during cop 15 in copenhagen, but nobody noticed. governments were so busyarguing with one another and blaming each otherfor causing climate change,

that when a small countryraised our hands and announced, "we promise to remaincarbon neutral for all time," nobody heard us. nobody cared. last december in paris, at cop 21, we reiterated our promise to remain carbon neutralfor all time to come. this time, we were heard. we were noticed, and everybody cared.

what was different in pariswas that governments came round together to accept the realities of climate change, and were willing to come togetherand act together and work together. all countries, from the very smallto the very large, committed to reducethe greenhouse gas emissions. the un framework conventionon climate change says that if these so-calledintended commitments are kept, we'd be closerto containing global warming by two degrees celsius.

by the way, i've requested the ted organizers here to turn up the heat in hereby two degrees, so if some of youare feeling warmer than usual, you know who to blame. it's crucial that all of uskeep our commitments. as far as bhutan is concerned, we will keep our promiseto remain carbon neutral. here are some of the ways we are doing it.

we are providing free electricityto 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 purchaseof electric vehicles. similarly, we are subsidizingthe cost of led lights, and our entire governmentis trying to go paperless. we are cleaning up our entire countrythrough clean bhutan, a national program, and we are planting treesthroughout our country

through green bhutan, another national program. but it is our protected areas that are at the coreof our carbon neutral strategy. our protected areas are our carbon sink. they are our lungs. today, more than halfour country is protected, as national parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries.

but the beauty is that we've connectedthem all with one another through a network of biological corridors. now, what this means is that our animals are freeto roam throughout our country. take this tiger, for example. it was spottedat 250 meters above sea level in the hot, subtropical jungles. two years later, that same tiger was spotted near 4,000 meters

in our 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 resourcesto prevent poaching, hunting, mining and pollution in our parks, and resources to help communitieswho live in those parks manage their forests, adapt to climate change,

and lead better lives while continuingto live in harmony with mother nature. but that is expensive. over the next few years,our small economy won't have the resources to cover all the costs that are requiredto protect our environment. in fact, when we run the numbers, it looks like it'll take usat least 15 years before we can fully financeall our conservation efforts. but neither bhutan, nor the world

can afford to spend 15 yearsgoing 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 parks, to protect our parks, until our governmentcan take over on our own fully.

the idea is to raise a transition fund from individual donors,corporations and institutions, but the deal is closed onlyafter predetermined conditions are met and all funds committed. so multiparty, single closing: an idea we borrowed from wall street. this means that individual donorscan commit without having to worry that they'll be leftsupporting an underfunded plan. it's something like a kickstarter project,

only with a 15-year time horizon and millions of tonsof carbon dioxide at stake. once the deal is closed, we use the transition fundto protect our parks, giving our government timeto increase our own funding gradually until the end of the 15-year period. after that, our governmentguarantees full funding forever. we are almost there. we expect to close later this year.

naturally, i'm pretty excited. the world wildlife fundis our principle partner in this journey, and i want to give them a big shoutout for the excellent workthey are doing in bhutan and across the world. whew, it is getting warm in here. i thank you for listening to our story, a story of how we are keepingour promise to remain carbon neutral, a story of how we are keepingour country pristine,

for ourselves, our children, for your children and for the world. but we are not hereto tell stories, are we? we are here to dream together. so in closing, i'd like to shareone more dream that i have. what if we could mobilizeour leadership and our resources, our influence and our passion, to replicate the bhutan for life ideato other countries so that they too

can conserve theirprotected areas for all time. after all, there are many other countrieswho face the same issues that we face. they too have natural resources that can help win the world's fightfor sustainability, only they may not have the abilityto invest in them now. so what if we set up earth for life, a global fund, to kickstartthe bhutan for life throughout the world? i invite you to help me, to carry this dream beyond our borders

to all those who careabout our 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 are in it together. some of us might dress differently, but we are in it together. thank you very much,

and kadrin chhe la. thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you.

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