Bhutan will soon have some experts in climate change. The College of Natural Resources (CNR) in Punakha is launching the first-ever Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) course in Climate Change Studies in July this year. The studies will be focusing on four parts of Climate Science, Mitigation, Adaptation and its Policy.
Climate Change Studies will be a three-year course for regular students and six years for part-time students.
In the first batch, the course will be offered to only four individuals. The candidates should have at least a Master’s Degree in relevant subjects.
“It is high time that we need to be in our capacity. We cannot depend so much on the people who are coming from outside. We need to pay a huge amount to the people who are coming and the building our capacity that doesn’t help because they come here for a short period. And then we are left on our own,” said Om Katel (PhD), the Dean of CNR.
He added that during the course, the students will be doing a profound research on climate change with the authenticated and consolidated data. This report will help the people in understanding the current situation of Climate Change through publications. It will also help the policymakers to develop their agenda for fighting against climate change in the country.
According to the college, the reports compiled by the PhD students would work as a tool to showcase the proof in the international community about how Climate Change impact the country.
“We have not contributed anything to climate change, causing climate change but we are bearing the brunt of climate change and this is the data. Even though we are not contributing to cause the climate change but we are trying to put our best effort to address the climate change and here is our data and then if you agree with pollute of principle the countries which are polluting need to compensate us,” said the Dean.
He said Bhutan is one of the examples for the world in terms of addressing climate change through various mitigation and adaptations.
“Climate change is a cross-cutting issue and it is related to different sectors like the agriculture, forestry, water resources of which food security is going to be the major issues for us,” he added.
The College currently has about fifteen faculty members holding PhD degree in various fields, which would suffice for the course. The college is also looking feasibility in bringing other professors from abroad.
Likewise, the college has enough resources and accommodation for the course. However, the continuation of the course would depend on the outcome result of the first batch.
Changa Dorji, Wangdue Phodrang
