Asia-Pacific Community: Chinese-built wastewater plant revives Mongolian capital's green lifeline www.xinhuanet.com

Ulan Bator's Tuul River, long choked by untreated sewage and plagued by acrid odors, has seen a remarkable environmental turnaround thanks to a landmark Chinese-Mongolian wastewater treatment facility, with local staff like Urnaa devoting years to preparing for its full handover to local operators.

Urnaa works as the chief translator at the Ulan Bator central sewage treatment plant, the nation's largest and most advanced sewage plant that began construction in early 2019 and was inaugurated on June 15 this year.

Every working day, she shuttles across the sprawling facility's workshops, providing real-time interpretation for Mongolian technical teams and compiling operation and maintenance manuals to smooth the handover process to the local team. Over the past year, she has watched how the plant, built entirely to Chinese standards and using Chinese technology by China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd., has evolved from early construction to full operation.
Standing on the rooftop on the fourth floor of the plant's comprehensive service building, eight massive secondary sedimentation tanks stretch outward like polished mirrors, their clear treated water reflecting Mongolia's boundless blue skies and white clouds.

Covering a total area of 178,000 square meters with 55 standalone buildings, the plant boasts a daily treatment capacity of 250,000 cubic meters. It can process nearly all residential and industrial wastewater produced in Ulan Bator, serving roughly half of Mongolia's entire population.

Two side-by-side display boards in the facility's lobby lay bare the capital's decades-long sewage crisis, drawing a stark contrast between this modern, recycling-focused new plant and its outdated predecessor.

Constructed back in the 1960s and expanded three times over the years, the aging plant only handled 160,000 to 170,000 cubic meters of wastewater each day. As the capital's population exploded, sewage output surged, triggering equipment malfunctions.

For years, vast volumes of inadequately treated wastewater were discharged directly into the Tuul, Ulan Bator's mother river -- a foul reality Urnaa remembers all too clearly from her early career. Ten years ago, while working on a Mongolian disabled children's rehabilitation project run by the same Chinese contractor, the stench from the polluted river lingered constantly around the work compound. Today, stable operation of the new treatment plant has delivered visible improvements to surrounding air quality and the river's water clarity.

Lyu Haiyun, project manager from China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd, noted that the plant's value stretches far beyond simply producing clean discharged water, as it delivers a complete low-carbon circular development concept tailored for Mongolia. Its integrated design unifies wastewater treatment, clean energy production and resource recycling.

Design teams took full account of Mongolia's sludge, which contains high organic matter, installing four large medium-temperature anaerobic reactors on-site to ferment sludge into biogas for power and heating. Once fully operational, the biogas system will meet 25 to 30 percent of the plant's electricity and heating demands, slashing long-term operating expenses.

Beyond filling Mongolia's critical domestic sewage treatment technology gap, the project prioritizes cultivating independent local operational capacity through systematic training. Starting in 2023, around 70 Mongolian operation and maintenance technicians have traveled to China for specialized training courses. In July, Urnaa accompanied local regulatory officials to Beijing to attend training sessions on biogas power generation.

"Many Mongolian engineers have learned so much through this project," Urnaa said. "For me personally, all the training and on-site practice have given me full confidence to work for similar infrastructure projects in the future."

TMK Energy secures driller for fresh Mongolian gas pilot well www.theage.com.au

TMK Energy has locked in contractor Major Drilling to kick off a new work program at its Gurvantes XXXV coal seam gas project in Mongolia, as it looks to chase a major lift in gas flows and demonstrate the commercial chops of its independently certified 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas contingent resource.

Notably, the resource figure is derived from just 60 square kilometres of the project’s sprawling 8400-square-kilometre tenure, suggesting the true potential remains uncharted. The company has flagged a prospective resource of 5.3 trillion cubic feet across the broader Mongolian South Gobi basin.

The company has committed to drilling at least one new pilot production well, LF-08, and will also re-complete three of its seven existing wells in a bid to ramp up gas flows. TMK’s new well is targeting an up-dip location that management believes could make it an early gas producer.

It will be drilled with an optimised wellbore design intended to build on the success of the project’s best-performing well to date, LF-07, the only well delivered under a revised reservoir management plan last year. Final preparations for the new well are underway, with drilling operations expected to kick off in late September.

‘The month-on-month increase in gas production is clear evidence that the coals in our pilot are capable of sustained gas production.’
TMK Energy chief executive officer Dougal Ferguson
In parallel, the company is pushing ahead with the re-completion of three existing production wells – LF-02, LF-03 and LF-06, with work scheduled to start next month. Most of the long-lead items for the re-completions have been manufactured and are now being shipped from China to Mongolia, following the purchase order, with the equipment expected on-site in the coming weeks.

The initial plan had contemplated drilling up to three new wells; however, the company has refined its strategy to focus first on increasing gas production from its existing assets, while retaining the flexibility to drill additional wells under its contract with Major Drilling.

The company says the combination of drilling LF-08 and re-completing three existing wells is expected to meet its 2026 work program commitments for the Gurvantes XXXV licence.

TMK Energy chief executive officer Dougal Ferguson said: “The month-on-month increase in gas production that we report is clear evidence that the coals in our pilot are capable of sustained gas production and that the pressure in the reservoir continues to decline. These key facts, together with continued good water production rates are the key ingredients of a successful coal seam gas project.”

The company’s latest operations update shows average gas production during July climbed 5 per cent from the previous month to about 27,500 standard cubic feet per day (scfd). The upward trend has continued into August, with daily production now averaging more than 28,250scfd and edging closer to the company’s next operational milestone of producing more than 30,000scfd.

Alongside rising production, TMK and its local partner, Dashvaanjil Group, have completed engineering and design work for the company’s gas-to-power project. Subject to commercial agreements being finalised and a planned October final investment decision, the project is expected to be operational by December. It would provide the company with an early pathway to cashflow by converting its own gas into electricity for remote mining operations that currently rely on diesel or third-party power.

The Gurvantes XXXV project is strategically located in Mongolia’s South Gobi Desert, less than 20km from the Chinese border and close to existing gas infrastructure in northern China. For an aspiring gas producer, having the world’s largest energy market just a stone’s throw away is a serious commercial advantage.

With a drilling contractor now locked in and equipment heading to site, TMK appears to be rounding the corner on its pilot program. The focus is now on execution, with the rods set to start turning next month as the company works to prove it can deliver commercial quantities of gas from its giant Mongolian resource.

Chinese tech aids Mongolia's green, industry goals www.chinadaily.com.cn

China-backed green technologies and ecological projects are helping Mongolia balance economic growth and land restoration as desertification affects more than 70 percent of its territory, with the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital city, from Aug 17 to Friday.

Mongolia's economy relies heavily on mining and livestock farming, creating an urgent need to protect fragile grasslands while developing key industries. Chinese enterprises are providing effective green solutions to support Mongolia's national One Billion Trees initiative.

China-Mongolia ecological cooperation has been expanded. The China-Mongolia Desertification Prevention and Control Cooperation Center was inaugurated in Ulaanbaatar in September 2023 to support Mongolia's green drive.

At the Ulan Mine operated by China Railway Resources Group's Xinxin Company, advanced green systems have been put into full use. A closed-loop tailings water recycling system enables nearly all production water to be reused, greatly saving water resources and reducing environmental risks. The mine also boasts Mongolia's first back-filling mining system, which refills underground cavities to prevent surface subsidence and protect vegetation.

The company has protected more than 10 springs near the mine and carried out large-scale revegetation. By 2025, it had planted over 12,000 trees and restored dozens of hectares of land. It provides more than 1,100 stable jobs, with over 90 percent of employees being Mongolian nationals, and has established partnerships with more than 30 local businesses.

Local herder Gankhimig said her two children used to make a living from tending livestock, but saw a clear income increase after they started working at the mine. The family has also taken part in tree-planting activities organized by the mine.

In the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia, China's M-Grass Ecology and Environment Group is providing technical support for a 400-hectare saxaul forest project, another important part of the One Billion Trees project. The region has extremely harsh natural conditions, with vegetation cover below 10 percent, annual precipitation of only about 104 millimeters and extreme temperatures ranging from — 31.5 C to 42.2 C.

Wang Junfang, technical team leader of the project, said the survival of saxaul seedlings depends on careful planning and detailed work. To reduce damage to the desert surface and native plants, the team reduced the diameter of planting pits from 40 centimeters to 20 cm.

The project planned to plant 330,000 saxaul seedlings. Field surveys started in May 2025, and 80 hectares were planted last autumn. Another 200 hectares will be completed this autumn using the "mechanical digging plus manual planting" method. A 10-hectare research zone has been established to test over 20 Mongolian native plant species and adapt China's desert-control technologies to local conditions.

The project used a water-saving irrigation plan that mainly depends on natural rainfall. Two years after the saxaul trees mature, the team planned to test grafting cistanche, a medicinal plant, and carry out carbon sequestration monitoring, combining ecological restoration with local economic benefits.

M-Grass is also cooperating with a Mongolian partner on mine restoration and an 8-hectare mine-slope restoration pilot project.

Oyunsanaa Byambasuren, director-general of Mongolia's Forestry Administration, spoke highly of China's rich experience in desertification control, which has been widely recognized worldwide. He said the "China Corner", a themed exhibition in the Blue Zone at COP17, provided valuable experience for Mongolia and other countries, and bilateral cooperation has broad prospects.

Fan Lijun, director of the Belt and Road Initiative Research Institute at the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, said the cooperation that combines China's technologies with local conditions achieves both ecological protection and industrial development, serving as a new highlight of practical cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor.

Reality behind ‘flourishing’ satellite cities www.ubpost.mn

At the Mayors’ Forum held as part of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the management of a city that seemed to have arrived from the future—or rather, had come to life on paper—astonished the audience.

During the forum, mayors discussed challenges common to densely populated urban areas, including ecosystem degradation caused by overconcentration and unequal access to green infrastructure, while searching for practical solutions. Against this backdrop, the city’s “mayor” appeared to speak from an entirely different reality. “We Mongolians need to stop viewing urban land through the narrow lens of profit and start seeing it as a responsibility. Going forward, we will establish a system of accountability for investing in urban land,” the mayor declared.

The promises did not stop there. The official went on to say that mortgages would be provided to people who settle in the city in the future and that those who had previously participated in subsidised housing programmes would also be considered. It is difficult to imagine what impression the foreign delegates, businesspeople and investors who have been introduced to the city’s development plans, designs and vision in recent days will take home with them. What is even more troubling is that the city appears to have “flourished” primarily in the imagination of its officials. For Mongolians who have watched the project unfold from its inception, seeing it presented to international representatives with such confidence is enough to leave one wondering whether to laugh or cry. Some have even gone so far as to say they can only hope that as few people as possible hear the “dream plans” of Mongolian officials.

By now, readers may already have guessed which city is being discussed. For nearly 15 years, Mongolia has talked about developing a new city in the Khushig Valley, centred around Chinggis Khaan International Airport in the territory of Altanbulag and Sergelen soums of Tuv Province. It has been about six years since official resolutions and decisions were adopted to move the project forward. Yet, at present, there is little to show for it beyond a collection of officials, several stretches of utility pipelines and the foundations of a few infrastructure facilities.

Against this backdrop, presenting the project to international delegates as a flagship initiative and as a “model city for green, smart and sustainable development” is, frankly, embarrassing. In recent months, Ulaanbaatar authorities have increasingly released information suggesting that the Hunnu City project is progressing rapidly and is almost ready to receive residents. As recently as August 10, officials from the Capital City’s Integrated Project Management Office stated that construction of the Sergelen substation in Hunnu City had reached 95 percent completion and that the main work to establish a reliable electricity supply was nearing completion.

They added that the rapid progress of basic urban infrastructure would provide the foundation for the phased construction of buildings and facilities, housing, government complexes, educational institutions and service centres. During COP17, officials responsible for the city’s development also announced ambitious plans to relocate all of Ulaanbaatar’s transportation and logistics operations to Hunnu City and establish an airport, schools and kindergartens there, claiming that the project would eventually create approximately 80,000 jobs. They further stated that more than 2,000 jobs had already been created.

Yet, on the ground, even the detailed designs for the secondary utility networks required for the new city have reportedly not been completed. Although the capital administration has been issuing statements suggesting that the basic engineering infrastructure has been put in order, the detailed designs for the full networks for clean water, wastewater, heating, telecommunications and electricity are reportedly still incomplete. In other words, the construction of the city remains, in large part, a plan on paper against a vast expanse of empty land.

And yet officials and executives continue to speak grandly about mortgages, economic free zones, green urban development, land management and smart investment—as though these ambitions were already within reach. At this point, such rhetoric risks becoming less a vision for the future than a source of confusion for the public.

The problem is not that Mongolia should not dream of a new city. Nor is there anything inherently wrong with presenting an ambitious vision to the international community. The problem is the growing gap between the city that officials describe and the city that actually exists.

A genuinely green, smart and sustainable city cannot be built through slogans, conceptual drawings and promises alone. It requires completed designs, functioning infrastructure, transparent financing, accountable institutions and, above all, tangible progress on the ground. Until those foundations are in place, Hunnu City remains far closer to a city on paper than the future metropolis its officials are presenting to the world.

There are several reasons why the public remains unconvinced by the plans and decisions surrounding the construction of a new city in the Khushig Valley. First, Mongolia has a limited track record of successfully implementing major infrastructure and development projects, let alone building entirely new urban settlements. Although policy documents have repeatedly envisioned developing outlying districts as satellite cities, authorities have struggled to move beyond discussion and plans. Six years have passed since the decision was made to establish a city around the new international airport, yet much of that time has been spent on presentations rather than actual construction. Despite the lack of tangible progress, enormous amounts of time and public money continue to be spent on promotional activities, including design and planning competitions, revisions to master plans, international forums, conferences and consultations.

Second, officials have appeared more focused on attracting public attention through populist statements and political spectacles that make old ideas look new than on advancing the project itself. The city has already been renamed three times—Aerocity, New Zuunmod and Hunnu—despite the fact that it has yet to be built. Meanwhile, two large state-funded entities, the Governor’s Office and the Hunnu City Development Corporation, have been established to oversee the city, apparently modelled on structures used in more developed countries, and continue to operate on a daily basis at taxpayers’ expense.

The scale of the bureaucracy surrounding the project was on full display at COP17, where four officials from these organisations were participating in the conference. They included the CEO of the Hunnu City Development Corporation, B.Gunbold, the official exercising the functions of governor and serving as plenipotentiary representative, M.Batbayar, chief engineer  D.Jargal and chief architect U.Tserenbazar, all attending the international gathering as representatives of the “city”. 

This alone offers a glimpse into the extensive structures and broad range of “functions” that have been established around the Hunnu City project under government patronage and funding. Perhaps most remarkably, while the project itself has made little visible progress, the number of people involved in its planning and organisation has continued to grow year after year.

For instance, an official serving as a consulting engineer told a conference on desertification that countries around the world are pursuing policies to limit environmental damage and ensure that people can live in healthy and safe environments by building new cities and redeveloping existing ones. He claimed that Hunnu City would follow these internationally recognised principles of urban planning and described the project as Mongolia’s first attempt to address Ulaanbaatar’s pressing urban challenges by drawing on modern requirements, technology and available resources.

Another consulting architect, whose team reportedly won the international competition for Hunnu City’s master plan, offered an equally ambitious vision. He said the city would become a new satellite area of Ulaanbaatar, adding that water was the most important foundation of any city and had therefore been made a central pillar of their design. According to him, the team’s main objective was not to produce a generic master plan for someone else, but to create a development adapted specifically to Mongolia’s conditions.

The Governor’s Office has also announced that Hunnu City is planned according to global urban development trends and the “15-minute city” concept. The idea, officials say, is to create an environmentally friendly green city with accessible, public-transportation-oriented infrastructure and essential government services concentrated within convenient reach of residents.

There is, in fact, no shortage of new announcements about the ambitious vision for Hunnu City. Year after year, the plans and designs for this satellite city, one that exists far more vividly in the imagination of its officials than on the ground, continue to grow increasingly elaborate.

The result is an ever-expanding vision of a futuristic city, while the physical city itself remains largely absent. For the public, this widening gap between what is being designed and what is actually being built is precisely what makes the promises surrounding Hunnu City so difficult to believe.

Country targets 53% clean energy by 2050 www.ubpost.mn

The Ministry of Energy has unveiled a draft strategic document aiming to raise the share of clean energy in the country’s total electricity production to 53.4 percent by 2050, up from just 7.2 percent today, while eliminating the dependence on electricity imports entirely. The document, covering the period 2026 to 2050, represents one of the most ambitious overhauls of the energy sector to date.

The plan comes as officials project that Mongolia’s energy demand will grow 5.4 times by mid-century, driven by economic expansion, urbanization and rising household and industrial consumption. To meet that demand, the ministry says installed capacity will need to expand dramatically from the current 1,936 MW to approximately 23,280 MW by 2050, a more than tenfold increase. Achieving that scale of growth will require building an average of 818 MW of new energy capacity every year, a pace the ministry says is 12 to 17 times faster than the current rate of development, underscoring the scale of the logistical and financial challenge ahead.

The strategy outlines a three-stage rollout. The first stage, running through 2030, will focus on expanding capacity, reducing reliance on imported electricity, and building production reserves to stabilize the grid in the near term. The second stage, extending to 2040, will bring new sources online, including the long-planned Eg River hydropower plant, and will see Mongolia launch its first energy export corridor starting in 2035. In the third and final stage, planners intend to further diversify the energy mix by introducing nuclear and hydrogen power sources, moving the country beyond its historical reliance on coal and imported electricity toward a broader, more resilient portfolio of generation technologies.

Financing the transition will require substantial investment. The ministry estimates 44.8 billion USD will be needed for generation sources, transmission networks, and heating infrastructure, with an additional 58 billion to 73 billion USD required for distribution networks and demand-side measures such as efficiency upgrades and grid modernization. Combined, this amounts to roughly 1.8 billion USD in annual investment, or about 5 percent of the long-term GDP.

Ulaanbaatar currently faces a heat supply deficit of 1,121 MW, a shortfall that has contributed to seasonal energy shortages and heightened reliance on coal-fired heating during the winter months, a major driver of the capital’s chronic air pollution. Meanwhile, electricity imports account for roughly a quarter of the country’s total annual energy supply, leaving Mongolia vulnerable to external price shocks and supply disruptions. 

PM Uchral Unveils Green AI Data Center Initiative www.montsame.mn

During the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Uchral Nyam-Osor, Prime Minister of Mongolia, introduced an initiative to establish an energy-efficient, renewable energy-powered "Green AI Data Center" in the country.

Mongolia has proposed the "Steppe Action" agenda, aligning the goals of the three Rio Conventions into an integrated framework of policy, financing, science, and innovation. As part of this effort, the country aims to build an energy-efficient "Green AI Data Center." The project is formally incorporated into Mongolia’s Five-Year Development Guidelines for 2026-2030 and the Government Action Program.

Mongolia possesses a vast territory, a cool and dry climate, and abundant solar and wind resources. Prime Minister Uchral emphasized that the country's strategic location between two major global markets creates the fundamental conditions for it to become a new hub for renewable energy and regional digital infrastructure.

The Green AI Data Center will serve as more than just a data storage facility; it will form the foundation of a national and regional smart decision-making platform that integrates environmental data, remote sensing technology, satellite information, geographic information systems, and artificial intelligence.

As global demand for data centers grows rapidly in tandem with artificial intelligence development, the need to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is intensifying. Consequently, highly efficient data centers powered by renewable energy are becoming the new global standard, the Prime Minister noted.

Expressing his confidence that the initiative will unlock new opportunities for cooperation toward sustainable development for Mongolia, the broader region, and the world, PM invited international partners to collaborate, invest, and share their technology, knowledge, and expertise.

Mongolia Advances Water Initiative to Boost International Cooperation www.montsame.mn

The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP17) continued with Water Day on August 25.

Rather than addressing water as a standalone issue, the day’s discussions focus on integrated solutions linking water, land and people, including the water-land-climate nexus, drought resilience, water security, land restoration and investment in these areas.

For example, the “Making Water a Connector” discussion highlights water as a strategic link between climate, land, biodiversity and food security, while “Transforming Agricultural Water Management” addresses efficient water use, drought-resilient food systems and increased investment. The “Water-Land-People” High-Level Dialogue explores ways to integrate science, policy and practice for the integrated management of water, ecosystems and land. Meanwhile, the “Land Restoration for Water Resilience” discussion examines solutions for mobilizing science, partnerships and investment to advance ecosystem restoration, strengthen water security and reduce drought risks.

Asked about Mongolia's Integrated Water and Land Management Initiative, which is being advanced through COP17, Sandag-Ochir Tsend, Minister of Environment and Climate Change said:

“As the host country of COP17, Mongolia today launched its Integrated Water and Land Management Initiative, the second of three initiatives proposed under the Steppe Action Agenda. We will present our water-related projects to build partnerships and promote cooperation. Results are already emerging, and a number of memoranda of understanding are being signed. Yesterday, we launched cooperation in the areas of forests, rangelands and water and signed major agreements.

The main objective of this initiative is to improve access to water for citizens, herders and farmers living and working in the Gobi and steppe regions. Investment and financing secured through these agreements and memoranda of understanding will create opportunities to support water projects.

As the country chairing the Convention in the coming years, it is important for us to clearly communicate the significance of our water initiative and projects to the public and draw international attention to them. At a time of growing water scarcity, there is a need to develop projects and programmes for recycling and reusing greywater in industry and services, as well as for supplying groundwater and surface water to areas facing water shortages. This will help create conditions for local communities to settle and live sustainably.”

Mongolia positions itself as Asia's next data centre hub www.euronews.com

During the COP17 conference in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia offered potential data centre investors tax relief, data security, cheap energy, land, and cold weather.
Mongolia is positioning itself as a global data centre hub, signing agreements for 863 megawatts of data centre capacity on the sidelines of a United Nations conference on desertification that brought 197 delegations to Ulaanbaatar this month.

The move to attract data centre investment was the most concrete economic outcome of the 12-day COP17 conference of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, where delegates are discussing how to restore land degraded by climate change.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Togmid Dorjkhand, Mongolia has three main competitive advantages: cheap renewable energy, a cold climate that reduces cooling costs, and a vast land area and stable legal framework.

"We have a lot of energy generation potential, above the ground and under the ground and we have all kinds of deposits, uranium and coal and other resources," Togmid told Euronews.

"And yes, we are a very cold country, eight months a year are very cold. Cold weather is important for the data centres because they need a lot of cooling, so the colder the weather the more you save on cooling."

"There is a third reason, that we are a democracy, we are governed by law and not by a person or a party. We have a strong legal environment that protects the investors,” Togmid said.

Togmid told Euronews energy costs for data centres in Mongolia would be below 4 cents per kilowatt-hour — compared with 14 to 16 cents in the US — and that grid connection could be delivered within 24 months.

He said investors could expect returns of around 18%. "We are 40% cheaper than other countries," he said.

Digital Development, Innovation and Communications Minister Chinbat Nomin presented Mongolia’s investment opportunities in green data centres, while Deputy Prime Minister Togmid delivered the closing remarks.

"We offer more than just natural resources, we offer safety and data sovereignty," Chinbat told investors. "Once you store data it is secure and the data connection is also sovereign and secure."

"We hope that Mongolia will become a data centre hub, especially for those who wish to serve one of the largest markets, China, but keep the data outside China."

Ten memoranda of understanding were signed at the event, Minister Chinbat said.

The government has drafted a Data Law and a strategic framework called "Sovereign by Design," built around three pillars: energy sovereignty, network sovereignty and legal and regulatory sovereignty.

The government has said it is not seeking to build and operate data centres itself, but to create the conditions for domestic and international investors to do so.

Up to $2 billion in financing is available for eligible green and renewable infrastructure projects. The government said it had benchmarked its investment framework against those of 26 countries.

Private-sector energy producers are developing hybrid power solutions that can supply new data centre projects within 24 months, allowing energy and construction to advance simultaneously.

COP17 and Mongolia's desertification crisis
The investment drive ran alongside the conference's main agenda. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification was adopted in 1994 and has 197 signatory countries.

Its conferences bring together governments, scientists and financial institutions to address land degradation, drought and desertification, processes that are accelerating globally due to climate change and are estimated to affect more than 3 billion people.

Mongolia is among the most affected countries: roughly 77% of its land is affected by desertification, a figure that has worsened as temperatures in the country have risen at more than twice the global average.

A local newspaper published a piece under the headline "World comes to Ulaanbaatar. Now what?", echoing a question on many minds: whether a country that hosted the conference would see concrete benefits beyond the diplomatic occasion.

In Mongolia's telling, the answer is the data centre push. The government used the concentration of visiting investors and ministers to advance an agenda that sits at the intersection of its environmental commitments and its economic development strategy, marketing renewable energy potential and cold climate as assets rather than liabilities.

China-Mongolia mineral ties pose risk to South Korea diversification www.upi.com

South Korea is expanding cooperation with Mongolia on rare earths and other critical minerals, but its effort to diversify supply chains away from China could encounter another form of China-related risk as Beijing deepens its own mineral ties with Mongolia.

The concern comes as South Korea-Mongolia cooperation takes shape, China and Mongolia strengthen their transportation and mineral supply networks and South Korean companies increase participation in U.S.-led supply chains designed to reduce reliance on China.

According to China's Foreign Ministry and other sources, China and Mongolia have recently moved to expand cooperation on critical minerals while strengthening transportation infrastructure to support the trade.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Mongolia in June and agreed to expand existing cooperation on mineral resources while making critical minerals a new area of bilateral cooperation.

The two countries are also pursuing additional rail and border-crossing connections following a second cross-border railway now under construction.

China's moves are drawing attention because South Korea has identified Mongolia as an important partner in diversifying its critical mineral supply chains.

Mongolia this month also began work on legislation to support heavy industry as it seeks to move beyond exports of raw ore and expand into mineral processing and refining.

That means China is widening its cooperation with Mongolia at the same time South Korea and Mongolia are seeking to expand joint development of critical minerals.

Some analysts in China have linked South Korea-Mongolia cooperation to U.S.-led efforts to create supply chains less dependent on China.

The Chinese academic journal International Forum in March cited the Korea-Mongolia Rare Metals Cooperation Center and the U.S.-South Korea-Mongolia Critical Minerals Dialogue as examples of South Korea's efforts to "de-risk" its supply chains from China.

The analysis viewed U.S.-China competition and South Korea's desire to reduce its dependence on China as factors behind Seoul's efforts to strengthen cooperation with resource-rich countries.

That perception also overlaps with growing South Korean corporate investment in the United States.

Korea Zinc is pursuing a $7.4 billion integrated critical minerals smelter in Tennessee with support from the U.S. government and has explicitly described the project as part of an "Ex-China" supply chain strategy.

POSCO International and LS are also working to establish rare-earth separation, refining and permanent-magnet production networks in the United States.

Washington has similarly linked mineral cooperation with South Korea and Mongolia to its broader supply-chain strategy.

When the State Department launched the trilateral U.S.-South Korea-Mongolia Critical Minerals Dialogue in 2023, it described the initiative as part of an effort to build secure and resilient global supply chains.

Analysts have said Mongolia's mineral resources could be combined with South Korea's processing capabilities and connected to supply chains serving the United States and its allies.

China has publicly objected to U.S.-led efforts to establish critical mineral supply chains that exclude or reduce reliance on Chinese suppliers.

Beijing has said it opposes what it calls exclusive supply chains and the politicization of economic and trade issues in response to efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earths and other critical minerals.

If South Korea-Mongolia cooperation becomes closely tied to U.S. supply chains and prompts a diplomatic or trade response from China, projects ranging from mineral development and processing to stable access to Mongolian resources could face disruptions.

In that scenario, South Korea's effort to diversify away from China could itself remain vulnerable to Chinese influence.

The South Korean government's publicly announced plans with Mongolia, however, have focused primarily on securing minerals and expanding supply chains.

A Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement reached in principle last month calls for immediate elimination of tariffs on copper, molybdenum, rare earths and other products after the agreement takes effect and establishes a formal framework for energy and mineral cooperation. The agreement in principle was announced in July.

Specific measures to address possible diplomatic or trade risks involving China have not been publicly outlined.

"On the surface, this is South Korea-Mongolia mineral cooperation, but in practice it is closer to cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Mongolia," a mineral industry official said.

"Because Mongolian minerals could eventually enter U.S. supply chains through South Korea, the possibility of Chinese intervention also needs to be considered," the official said.

The official added that Seoul should assess potential Chinese responses before projects become more concrete and prepare diplomatic and trade measures accordingly.

Loro Piana’s Frédéric Arnault underscores commitment to sustainable Mongolian cashmere at Cop17 www.scmp.com

In Ulaanbaatar, the LVMH-owned maison presents progress on its Resilient Threads initiative as it marks 40 years of sourcing luxury fibre from the region

Italian label Loro Piana marked its 40-year-long relationship with Mongolia at Cop17 – the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – currently under way in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital.
The UN-based biennial conference convenes representatives of governments, international organisations, financial institutions and scientists from around the world to find solutions to issues originating from desertification, land degradation and drought.

A landlocked country with immense natural resources and a vast, diverse landscape where arid desert sits alongside fertile grasslands, Mongolia is home to the only Loro Piana mill outside Italy.

Known for its luxurious garments made of precious yarns such as cashmere, Loro Piana, which was founded in the Piedmont region of northern Italy in 1924, sources its raw materials from countries including Peru, New Zealand and Australia. The brand has been sourcing cashmere from Mongolia for over four decades. In 1997, it officially set up its Mongolian operations before opening a manufacturing plant in Ulaanbaatar in 1999. To support Mongolia’s herding communities and cashmere cooperatives, last year the house launched Resilient Threads, a multi-year programme to protect the biodiversity of Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe and safeguard the well-being of its inhabitants.

Created to deal with the challenges posed by climate change, the project is founded upon the One Health principle, a scientific approach that takes into account the interconnected well-being of people, animals and the environment they inhabit.

In its first year, the initiative has led to the establishment of a biodiversity centre, a rehabilitation programme for the Bayandelger red goat, and the Dzud Impact Report – Dzud is a winter disaster unique to Mongolia, hampering animal grazing, feed and water, resulting in livestock loss. A One Health masterclass at the Mongolian University of Life Sciences, in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College and University of Liège, is also in the works. The programmes commit to the training of students and professionals on One Health practices, and the preservation of endangered species of goats that not only provide prized fibres like cashmere, but also staples such as goat milk and meat for the local population.

Driven by local experts, Resilient Threads also involves initiatives such as the One Health Mobile Hub, a travelling clinic offering herders and their animals healthcare services they wouldn’t be able to access without crossing long distances from their remote locations.

“It’s challenging, but it’s rewarding to see these concepts in action after just talking about these things for so long,” said Dr Batkhishig Baival, project lead at Resilient Threads, during a chat at the Loro Piana booth at Cop17. “It’s a learning process, and always evolving also because it requires all of the stakeholders’ engagement and they don’t always agree. The interests of wildlife protection entities, for instance, are often different from [those of the] goat herders, but we always find a [common ground].”

Resilient Threads is set to last until 2030, but the Mongolian government is paying close attention to the data being gathered to assess whether to implement the programme long term. Baival added that many provinces have expressed interest in being part of the initiative, which for now only focuses on Sukhbaatar province.

Loro Piana has been working to create a protocol to certify responsibly sourced cashmere since 2019 – when it began its partnership with the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare and the Sustainable Fibre Alliance – but Resilient Threads furthers its commitment to empowering local herder communities.

Part of LVMH, the largest luxury group in the world, Loro Piana has always prided itself on the excellence of its Made in Italy creations and its vertically integrated supply chain, which begins at the very source – the raw materials – before the fibres travel to Italy and are transformed into yarns that are also used by other luxury brands like LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, and the independent Hermès.

Its pristine state-of-the-art factory in Ulaanbaatar, which is on par with its counterparts in Italy, is just an example of the brand’s long history in Mongolia, which began in the 80s, when the Loro Piana family started travelling to the country “in search of the world’s finest cashmere”, as Loro Piana CEO Frédéric Arnault explained at Cop17. “True luxury begins with nature, with exceptional fibres, and with the people and places that make them possible,” Arnault said.

“We believe that what we do at Loro Piana, and also more globally, at the LVMH level, at all the 70 houses, cannot exist without an integrated approach to building a healthy and resilient ecosystem,” the CEO added in a speech at the French embassy the day before his appearance at Cop17.

This was Arnault’s first trip to the country, a sign of the importance of the relationship between Mongolia and the maison – and also of the ever-growing interest in traceability from luxury consumers, who are becoming more demanding when it comes to matters such as provenance and sustainability.

By Vincenzo La Torre
Formerly the fashion editor of the South China Morning Post, Vincenzo La Torre is the chief editor of Style, the South China Morning Post’s luxury monthly publication. Born and raised in Italy, Vincenzo started his career in journalism after graduating from Columbia University in New York, where he studied East Asian Languages and Cultures with a focus on Japanese and Chinese art. He has previously worked for Vogue Japan in Tokyo, Harper's Bazaar in Singapore and Prestige in Hong Kong. Before joining the Post as fashion editor in 2017, Vincenzo was a member of the launch team of Vogue Arabia in Dubai. He covers topics such as jewellery, watches, luxury, beauty, celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle, and has interviewed some of the most influential designers and CEOs in the luxury industry. Vincenzo speaks Italian, French, Japanese and Mandarin, and is a regular at high-profile events such as fashion week in Milan and Paris.