Mongolian mortgage lending decreasing www.news.mn

The issuing of mortgage loans has been decreasing. According to a statement by the Central Bank of Mongolia, banks issued a total of MNT 203.2 billion in mortgage loans to 2724 new borrowers in the first nine months of 2018. A total of MNT 115 billion for financing of mortgage loans in the 2019 State Budget will be available for a narrow group of 1150 borrowers.

‘Fuel importer’ father and son arrested www.news.mn

Mongolian police arrested R.Ganzorig, executive director of ‘Magnai Trade’, also known as the MT fuel importing company, along with his son on 8 October. They were released by decision of the First Court yesterday (9 October) after their lawyer made a complaint.

Flour producers to be granted discounted loan on wheat purchase www.zgm.mn

Chief of Cabinet Secretariat Zandanshatar Gombojav presented the results of Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa’s visit to Tuv, Selenge and Darkhan-Uul aimags during the Cabinet meeting yesterday and ordered to study the opportunities to grant interest rate discount to flour producers on wheat purchase. In case a situation emerges to set quota on wheat and flour imports, the Cabinet decided to favor domestic flour production. Related ministers were also ordered to involve greenhouse farmers to the nighttime electricity tariff discount, enable rail transport to grain and increase the number of harvest trucks. Furthermore, the Cabinet resolved to repair the harvest route road of Selenge aimag from the Government’s reserve fund and mobilize military units for harvesting. Minister of Health Sarangerel Davaajantsan will be responsible for funding the current and fixed costs steered from the increased workplaces following the completion of Health Care Center expansion of Bayangol soum, Selenge aimag.

IMF's Lagarde warns trade, currency wars could be detrimental for growth www.reuters.com

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Thursday warned countries of the perils of a trade or a currency war, saying they could be detrimental to global growth and hurt “innocent bystanders.”

IndustriALL and Rio Tinto conduct joint mission at Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia www.industriall-union.org

Global social dialogue between IndustriALL Global Union and Rio Tinto took a significant step forward when both parties undertook a joint mission to Rio Tinto’s massive Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold operations and underground expansion in the remote South Gobi desert of Mongolia.

The joint mission took place from the 17th - 22nd September 2018. Michael Gavin, Rio Tinto’s group head of employee relations, and Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL’s mining director, led their respective delegations. The IndustriALL delegation included regional staff, representatives of local unions, and journalists from Dagens Arbete, the magazine of Swedish affiliate IF Metal.

A major objective of the mission was to evaluate Rio Tinto’s environmental, social and governance strategies. The operation has not been without controversy. During the mission, consultation was held with the herder community and their elders, the local community, the governor of Khanbogd sum, permanent and contractor employees, and NGOs critical of the operation.

Mongolia is richly endowed in natural resources and is heavily dependent on mining for its economic prospects. Oyu Tolgoi is the jewel in Rio Tinto’s crown, providing the company with an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to responsible mining. Rio Tinto took the opportunity provided by the results of the Responsible Mining Index (RMI) to invite IndustriALL to Oyu Tolgoi.

IndustriALL participates in the RMI, which defines responsible mining as “…mining that demonstrably respects the interests of people and the environment, and contributes discernibly and fairly to broad economic development of the producing country.” Rio Tinto achieved one of the ten strongest results in four different areas: economic development, business conduct, working conditions and environmental responsibility.

IndustriALL held a workshop with Mongolian affiliate, the Federation of Energy, Geology and Mining Workers' Unions, for the leadership and over 40 representative shop stewards.

There are 16,117 workers at Oyu Tolgoi, split between a permanent Mongolian workforce of about 3,000 and a largely Mongolian and expatriate contractor workforce, involved in the underground expansion project. A major skills transfer from expatriates to Mongolians is a defining feature of skills development and training.

A large percentage of the Mongolian contracted workforce is set to be made permanent when the underground production comes on line. Evidence of the skills transfer is the large percentage of women operating massive hauling trucks at the open pit mine, and Mongolians holding critical senior management positions.

Glen Mpufane observed:

“The social license to operate is not a given, but must be earned, through transparency and trust in dialogue. Responsible mining is the pathway to obtaining that license”.

The conversation with Rio Tinto over its sustainability performance continues to include other global operations, for example QMM in Madagascar, RBM in South Africa, and the Rössing Uranium mine in Namibia.

ADB Project to Support Improved Water Governance in Mongolia www.finchannel.com

The FINANCIAL -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Mongolia marked the beginning of a $1.4 million technical assistance project with a workshop aimed to strengthen water governance at the river basin level and scale up lessons learned for application across Mongolia.A total of 70 people attended the workshop in Ulaanbaatar, including Ministry of Environment and Tourism Director General Ms. Bulgan Tumendemberel.

Mongolia hikes gasoline, diesel prices amid tugrik depreciation www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian oil importers have hiked the retail prices of gasoline and diesel from Saturday amid a rapid depreciation of the country's national currency the tugrik against the U.S. dollar.

War on coal is heating up, but China is still the key www.reuters.com

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Coal-fired power has to end by 2050 to save the planet. That seemingly simple but bold sentiment is likely to set much of the political, social and economic agenda for the coming decades, but in the end it will come down to what China does.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report on Monday that "unprecedented" changes will have to take place to limit the rise in the Earth's temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), warning of devastating weather events and species loss if the target is exceeded.

In order to achieve the goal, the IPCC said coal burning would have to drop to between zero and 2 percent by 2050, while even natural gas, coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS), would have to decline to 8 percent of electricity generation by the middle of this century.

While coal has long been the bogeyman of climate activists, the IPCC has effectively thrown down the gauntlet and given world leaders a little over 30 years to phase it out entirely.
Initial reaction to the IPCC report has been predictable, with supporters of renewable energy cheering it, and backers of fossil fuels resorting to the familiar arguments that somehow the science is either wrong or a hoax.

Australia's Environment Minister Melissa Price told ABC radio on Tuesday that the IPCC was "drawing a long bow" by calling for an end to coal by 2050, and touted new technologies as a way of saving the polluting fuel.

Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and relies on the fuel for more than 70 percent of its electricity generation.

Price isn't alone in touting CCS and other technologies, with the World Coal Association responding to the IPCC report by saying in a statement on its website that CCS is "vital" and that the coal lobby group will push for it to be adopted.

However, elsewhere on the group's website it acknowledges that currently progress of CCS "is too slow to allow necessary emissions reductions goals to be achieved".

Its solution is to spend more on research and development. But it's here that the coal lobby will run into problems.

Already renewable technologies, which have benefited from subsidies, are becoming cheaper than conventional coal-fired power generation, a trend likely to continue.

Coal-fired generation with CCS would likely require huge subsidies in order to be cost-competitive and selling such largesse with public money will be incredibly hard for governments in democracies.

It's therefore likely that the scenario currently being played out in Europe will be extended to other parts of the world, with coal-fired power being replaced by a combination of renewables, battery storage, gas-fired back-up and even nuclear.

Coal will further be hamstrung by the flight of capital from the sector, with commercial and development banks, insurers and trading companies starting to retreat from financing and insuring mines and power plants.

Debate should switch to Asia
While it's likely that the developed world will witness ongoing bitter debates over policy toward fossil fuels, the actual key to the IPCC target is China, and to a lesser extent the rest of developing Asia.

China is the world's largest producer, consumer and importer of coal and any genuine attempt to remove coal from the world's energy mix by 2050 will require massive commitment from Beijing.
While the Chinese government has a policy of limiting the use of coal and of boosting the use of renewables and natural gas, it's well within the realms of wishful thinking to imagine the world's second-largest economy is on track to abandon the use of coal by 2050.

According to the Global Coal Plant Tracker, China currently has 957 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power operating – more than four times India's 219 GW.

The positive news for both China and India, the world's second-biggest coal importer, is that the pipeline of coal-fired plant construction has been consistently shrinking and retirements of older units has been accelerating.

But given that once built, coal-fired plants generally operate for at least 30 years, it would be imperative that virtually all construction is halted now, and no new plants commissioned.

In reality, China currently has 126 GW of coal-fired power in construction and 76 GW either announced, in pre-permit phase or with permits already in place. India has 39 GW being built and 63 GW in the approval process.

There are also new coal plants being built or planned in numerous other Asian countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

What the IPCC report may do is accelerate pressure on those countries to re-think their power generation plans, especially if renewables can be shown to be as cheap and as reliable.

It's also likely that any technological advances in energy in the next decades will not be in favour of coal, given that vast sums are being invested in renewables and comparatively little in CCS or other coal-friendly technologies.

The IPCC report highlights that coal now has its back very much against the wall, but equally that the real power for change lies in Beijing.

Natural gas also tends to get off lightly in much of the media reporting about climate change, especially given the obvious target of coal.

But like silent flatulence in an elevator, eventually natural gas will be unable to avoid the attention that is making life so difficult for the coal industry.

(By Clyde Russell; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

Global coal mining industry sees compound annual growth www.mining.com

The global coal mining market is growing, with a CAGR of close to 2% from 2018-2022, according to a coal mining report published by Technavio.

Delegates of Asia Pacific Telecommunity convening in Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The 42nd Session of the Management Committee of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) is being held in Ulaanbaatar on October 9-12. Over 100 high-ranking officials of public and private organizations in ICT sector of APT member countries are taking part in the event.