05/09/2026
Bhutan Opens South Asian Regional Parliamentary Forum on Climate, Energy and Environment
Thimphu, 5 September 2026: Lyonpo Sonam Tashi, Honโble Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, today opened the South Asian Regional Parliamentary Forum (SARPF) on Climate, Energy and Environment, hosted in Thimphu from 5-6 September, 2026. He welcomed the Members of Parliament from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, along with delegates from the SARPF Secretariat, government officials, development partners, civil society and the media to the forum.
The South Asian Regional Parliamentary Forum (SARPF) for Climate, Energy and Environment is a non-partisan grouping of parliamentarians from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, formally launched in New Delhi in December 2024 to build political consensus and cross-border cooperation on climate resilience, a just energy transition, and sustainable development across South Asia.
Honโble Lyonpo offered condolences on behalf of the Royal Government of Bhutan for the lives lost in the recent devastating floods in Nepal, calling the tragedy a stark reminder that climate change and its consequences do not respect borders and demand a collective response. He highlighted Bhutan's constitutional mandate to maintain at least sixty percent forest cover, noting that the country's forest cover now stands close to seventy percent and that Bhutan remains one of the world's few carbon-negative nations, an outcome he attributed to the deliberate national development philosophy of Gross National Happiness rather than to geography alone.
Honโble Lyonpo cautioned that despite this record, Bhutan remains highly vulnerable to climate impacts it did little to cause, pointing to retreating glaciers, expanding glacial lakes, and increasingly erratic rainfall that threaten a nation where over ninety-nine percent of electricity comes from hydropower. He stressed that Bhutan's major rivers flow into India's Brahmaputra basin and onward to Bangladesh, meaning that floods or altered river flows originating in Bhutan's mountains carry consequences across the entire region, and called for stronger regional coordination on early warning systems, data sharing, biodiversity protection and climate finance. Underscoring the essential role of parliamentarians in enacting laws, approving budgets and representing affected communities, he urged delegates to use the Forum to strengthen regional solidarity and translate shared concerns into coordinated action, and extended his appreciation to the SARPF Secretariat and partners for organizing the two-day gathering in Thimphu.
