February 3: Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley is leaving the Kingdom tomorrow to attend the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2010 being convened in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

The three-day Summit is touted as the first major gathering of leaders drawn from every part of the globe and from every sphere of human endeavour to focus on the new pathways that the world is expected to explore and move along as a consequence of the Copenhagen Conference of the Parties in December 2009.

Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley will be among several world leaders who will deliver keynote addresses at the summit. Other notable speakers include former US President Bill Clinton, former Norwegian prime minister Dr. Gro Harlem Bruntland and, interestingly, the governor of California, Arnold Schwarnezenegger, who will speak through a satellite video link.

Dasho Paljor J. Dorji, an advisor to the National Environment Commission, will chair Ministerial Session III– Building on the Copenhagen Accord. Bhutanese environmentalists will also be present at the summit.

The sub-themes of the summit include building institutions for effective climate governance, from sustainable livelihoods to sustainable development, sustaining business in a climate-constrained world, financing opportunities post Copenhagen, role of emerging economies in fostering climate cooperation, and, in pursuit of sustainable development: ethics, equity, and social justice.