UN: Lyonchoen Tshering Tobgay took part in a series of side events of the UN SDG Summit-2015 on September 27 in New York.

The Prime minister attended and made a commitment statement at the Global Leaders’ meeting on Gender equality and women’s empowerment: A commitment to action.

Lyonchoen noted that with “the adoption of the 2030 agenda, the international community has a unique opportunity to ensure that addressing gender issues remain at the forefront of Sustainable Development.”

Lyonchoen reiterated Bhutan’s commitment to the accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and to the realisation of gender equality goals and empowerment in the 2030 Agenda.

Addressing the high level interactive event “Anchoring multidimensional poverty with SDGs,” co-hosted by Costa-Rica and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Lyonchoen said that Bhutan’s experience with GNH and its index would provide useful lessons for the Inter Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators under the UN Statistical Commission as they consider a proposal for a Global Indicator framework for the SDGs.

Lyonchoen also participated in the High Level Interactive Dialogue on “Protecting our planet and combating climate change,” where he shared that Bhutan has surpassed its commitment to remain carbon neutral and is in reality, a carbon negative country.

“We may in fact be the only country to have achieved this feat thus far,” he said highlighting the prospects of strengthening Bhutan’s contributions to combating climate change.

Lyonchoen informed that through the sale of 80 percent of the county’s clean hydro power to India, Bhutan would by 2025 offset 35,000 kilo tons of CO2 emissions per year, in the region.

The prime minister also participated as a panelist in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) event – “Conversation with Thomas Friedman, beyond the SDGs: A fresh start for the planet”.

Equating GNH to “development with values”, Lyonchoen said that good governance is the lynchpin that allows Bhutan to “think globally but act locally.”

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