Announcement of the 2022 Blue Planet Prize Winners
On behalf of the people of Bhutan, the National Council humbly pays our deepest respect and offers our heartfelt Trashi Delek to His Majesty The King, Drukgyal Zhipa on the prestigious Blue Planet Prize from Asahi Glass Foundation in Japan.
Since 1992 the year of the Earth Summit, the Blue Planet prize has been presented to individuals and organizations around the world in recognition of their outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application that helped provide efforts to bring about healing of the Earth’s fragile environment.
According to the Blue Planet press release - His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan, is the visionary leader who introduced the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) which places the well being of the people at the heart of development activities and programmes. GNH gives importance to environmental conservation, sustainable and equitable development, and promotion of culture and social values which contribute to collective happiness. Using happiness as a social indicator was taken on by the United Nations and OECD also employed it in their reports, giving inspiration for an alternative paradigm to modern society.
