Bhutan: One and only carbon sink of the globe

Geneva, January 11: Increasing level of carbon in the atmosphere is mostly every country’s concern as it affects the nature. As companies, researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs work to make industries and systems carbon-neutral, one tiny nation in the Eastern Himalayas has them all beat: Bhutan is world's first and only carbon-negative country.

Carbon-neutral is already pretty impressive, but carbon-negative, the process by which an entity removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than it is responsible for creating is almost unheard of, especially for such a small nation. So how do they do it?

Bhutan is currently 72 percent forested, and the country has even banned export logging. Bhutan also maintains this by offering only controlled, low-impact tourism, which includes changing all visitors’ sustainable development fees. Additionally, the country has won world records for planting the most trees per hour.

 

All these trees are what really make the country a carbon sink: while the country emits around 1.5 million tons of carbon annually, its forests absorb over 6 million tonnes, according to Proudly Carbon Neutral. But it is not stopping there. Bhutan is aiming for zero net greenhouse gas emissions and zero-waste by 2030 and 100 percent organic food production by 2020.