At least seven beavers in Mongolia have tested positive for Covid-19, the country's National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) said.

"Workers of the Beaver Breeding Centre at the Environmental Department of the capital Ulan Bator tested positive for the Covid-19 in August. After that, the Delta variant were detected in seven beavers," Nyamdorj Tsogbadrakh, director of the NCZD, told local media on Saturday.

It is the first time that Covid-19 has been detected in animals in Mongolia, Xinhua news agency quoted Tsogbadrakh as saying.

The infected beavers showed symptoms of cough, runny nose, sticky eyes and others, he said, adding that the animals have already recovered from the disease.

The disease has spread to the capital city and all 21 provinces of the country, and the Delta variant, in particular, has been detected in the capital and 20 provinces.

Mongolia, with a population of around 3.4 million, has registered a total of 252,648 Covid-19 cases, with 1,021 deaths. IANS

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has voted to include language in a wider budget reconciliation package that would block Rio Tinto Ltd from building its Resolution copper mine in Arizona.

The San Carlos Apache tribe and other Native Americans say the mine would destroy sacred land where they hold religious ceremonies. Elected officials in nearby Superior, Arizona, say the mine is crucial for the region’s economy.

The House Natural Resources Committee late on Thursday folded the Save Oak Flat Act into the $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending measure. The full House could reverse the move and the legislation faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. Senate.

IF APPROVED, THE BILL WOULD REVERSE A 2014 DECISION BY FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND CONGRESS THAT SET IN MOTION A COMPLEX PROCESS TO GIVE RIO FEDERALLY-OWNED ARIZONA LAND

If approved, the bill would reverse a 2014 decision by former President Barack Obama and Congress that set in motion a complex process to give Rio federally-owned Arizona land that contains more than 40 billion pounds of copper in exchange for acreage that Rio owns nearby.

Former President Donald Trump gave the land swap final approval before leaving office in January, but successor Joe Biden reversed that decision, leaving the project in limbo.

The final reconciliation budget is expected to include funding for solar, wind and other renewable energy projects that require immense volumes of copper. Electric vehicles use twice as much copper as those with internal combustion engines. The Resolution mine could fill about 25% of the demand for U.S. copper.

Superior Mayor Mila Besich, a Democrat, said the project seems increasingly stuck in “bureaucratic purgatory.”

“This move seems contradictory to what the Biden administration is trying to do to address climate change,” said Besich. “I hope the full House does not allow that language to stay in the final bill.”

Rio said it would continue consultation with local communities and tribes. Rio Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm plans to visit Arizona later this year.

Representatives for the San Carlos Apache and BHP Group Ltd, which is a minority investor in the project, could not immediately be reached for comment.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Harvard University has announced it will no longer invest in fossil fuels and will instead use its $42 billion endowment to support the world’s transition to green energy, drawing praise from stakeholders that had long pressed the educational institution to exit such holdings.

President Lawrence Bacow, who for years publicly opposed divesting, said in a letter that the university’s endowment had no direct investments in fossil fuel exploration or development companies as of June and will not invest in them in the future.

SIGN UP FOR THE ENERGY DIGEST

The university does have indirect investments in the fossil fuel industry but, according to Bacow, they are “in runoff mode.” These investments, made through private equity funds, make up less than 2% of the endowment, he said.

HARVARD HAD ANNOUNCED LAST YEAR IT WOULD WORK WITH ITS INVESTMENT MANAGERS TO REACH “NET ZERO” GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 2050, BUT THAT WASN’T FAST ENOUGH FOR ITS STUDENTS

The move marks a sharp twist in the university’s position on the matter in the last ten years, which pitted student activists against administrators and dominated campus politics.

In a September 2019 letter published in Harvard Magazine, Bacow wrote that he believed working with fossil fuel companies was a “sounder and more effective approach” to fossil fuels for Harvard to take.

“We may differ on means,” Bacow told students in the letter. “[But we] share the belief that action is required. We just happen to have an honest difference of opinion over what the appropriate action is.”

The university had announced last year it would begin working with its investment managers to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That wasn’t fast enough for its students. A group filed in March a complaint with the Massachusetts attorney general to try forcing Harvard to sell its estimated $838 million fossil fuel holdings, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Butterfly effect?

Divest Harvard, one of the activist groups, described the announcement on Twitter as “a massive victory for our community, the climate movement, and the world — and a strike against the power of the fossil fuel industry.”

The Ivy League college, the richest in the US, will be following in the footsteps of other institutions, such as the University of California and the UK’s Cambridge University, which have committed to divesting their endowments from the fossil fuel industry.

The decision is expected to motivate other educational institutions to withdraw their support of businesses contributing to man-made climate change.

The university will also be joining a growing group of big institutional investors and governments that are responding to consumer pressure to accelerate de-carbonization efforts.

The United Nation’s authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released last month a report deemed as “code red for humanity.”

The review of a 2013 report predicts that temperatures on Earth will rise by about 1.5 degrees Celsius in two decades and warns that a near-2m rise in sea levels by the end of this century “cannot be ruled out.”

Mongolia confirmed 3,805 new daily coronavirus cases, the country's Ministry of Health said on Sept 9.

1,381 cases were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar, 2,299 cases were detected in the regions.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide has increased to 247,399.

10 people died in a day.

The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Mongolia has increased to 992.

Despite significant challenges facing Mongolia's economic and financial markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, market capitalization, trading volumes, and index have all recently reached historically high levels.

Market capitalization reached MNT 4.0 trillion last month, and the capitalization of one of the largest national companies reached MNT 1.0 trillion. Moreover, on September 8, 2021, the market capitalization of the Mongolian Stock Exchange JSC reached its highest ever level - in the 30-year history of the capital market in the country - of MNT 5.0 trillion.

As a result of the support being provided to the capital market from the Mongolian Parliament and the Government, the Financial Regulatory Commission has accomplished the following in cooperation with professional market organizations, securities issuers and investors:

developing the capital market,

increasing the range of products and services, and

converting securities between domestic and foreign exchanges.

Today, market capitalization has reached a record high as a result of major policy measures, used to build a system of professional investors. It is worth noting that this increase was also due to factors such as the recovery of public and corporate confidence in the capital market, increased participation in trading, and an increase in the total value of listed companies.

Interest rates will be gradually reduced in the future under the Strategy to Reduce Loan Interest Rates, and the recent amendments to the Banking Law of Mongolia. Next year, systemically important banks will become listed, and their shares will be traded to the public through trading organizations. This will contribute to increasing market capitalization, improving the quality and availability of products and services, and improving the comprehensive long-term situation of the financing system.

As part of the ‘MNT 10 trillion Comprehensive Plan for Health Protection and Economic Recovery’, one-year term loans totaling MNT 100 billion will be issued at a 3 percent interest rate for the preparation of up to 20 thousand tons of meat for coming winter and spring. The government will pay 7.65 percent of the total interest amount. The Ministry of Finance has established agreements with the Bank of Mongolia and five commercial banks and 18 companies have been selected to do the winter meat preparation.

At the Cabinet’s meeting on September 8, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Z.Mendsaikhan presented a preliminary crop projection. The forecast for the production of grains is 594.1 thousand tons, wheat – 559.2 thousand tons, potato – 198.8 thousand tons, vegetables – 117.0 thousand tons, oil plant – 64.3 thousand tons, and animal feed – 203.3 thousand tons. According to the estimates, 100 percent of wheat and potato demand and 60 percent of the vegetable demand will be met domestically. As of September 8, companies submitted requests to hire 7.3 thousand students and cadets for crop harvesting. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Health are working together to fill the demand. Moreover, Mongolian Youth Federation in collaboration with Youth Labor Center is implementing the Golden Fall sub-project to register students for crop harvesting and match companies to them.

The United States is delighted to announce that the U.S. donation of 188,370 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses has arrived in Mongolia. These doses were delivered through COVAX and came directly from the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The United States remains committed to supporting the people of Mongolia as they recover from this devastating pandemic. These donations through COVAX are part of that effort.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States have provided more than $4 million in support to Mongolia, including USAID’s delivery of 50 high-quality ventilators in December 2020 and follow-on training needed to treat critically ill patients. These ventilators provided valuable medical support as Mongolia navigated through its unfortunate surge in cases this year. USAID also supports risk communication campaigns, infection prevention and control efforts in health facility and school settings, and vaccine distribution assistance.

In addition, the United States has provided critical medical equipment for more than 570 medical facilities and helped train nearly 12,700 healthcare workers to conduct outbreak surveillance, use and manage U.S. government-donated medical equipment, and deliver quality care for COVID-19 patients.

The United States, as Mongolia’s third neighbor, will continue to support the health and wellbeing of the Mongolian people.

The United States is the largest single country contributor to COVAX. The U.S. government contributed an initial $2 billion contribution to Gavi in March, which supports procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX. In July, the U.S. government provided an additional $2 billion contribution for Gavi that will help fill the gap in COVAX’s vaccine supply. This funding, along with other U.S. government funds, is being used toward the purchase of 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine that will be made available to Gavi for distribution by COVAX to 92 low- and lower-middle-income economies around the world and the African Union.

Worldwide, the United States has provided 130 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 90 countries. We will continue to donate additional vaccine doses globally as supply becomes available. We are also working with U.S. vaccine manufacturers to increase vaccine supply for the rest of the world and with partners to expand global vaccine production and manufacturing capacity to beat this pandemic.

Beijing has stepped up efforts to source more coal from neighbouring Mongolia amid an ongoing supply shortage, raising more questions about how long a ban on Australian coal can last.

China is suffering from a spike in coal prices amid declining supplies, which has also prompted authorities to ban an influential local trading platform from updating coal prices and market news that could fuel speculation.

Rising coal prices are another worry for China, which is already dealing with high raw material costs that are hurting businesses.

In a virtual meeting with Mongolian deputy prime minister Amarsaikhan Sainbuyan on Tuesday, Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao broached the topic of buying more mineral and agricultural products from Mongolia, a ministry statement said.

Since the last October – which formed part of a broader trade spat between the two countries – data shows China has stepped up purchases of coal from other exporting countries, including Mongolia, to meet domestic demand that has spiked due to bouts of extreme weather.

has replaced Australia to become China’s largest source of imported coking coal since the second half of last year, but transport between the two countries has been frequently disrupted by Covid-19 outbreaks in the landlocked east Asian nation.

Local media reported on August 21 that Ganqimaodu customs in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region had suspended coal imports from Mongolia for two weeks due to pandemic prevention. The port carries about half of China’s coking coal shipments from Mongolia.

Soon after the border closure, prices of Chinese coking coal, as well as coke and thermal coal futures, surged to record daily highs, although the official position of the customs agency was that clearance of coal was “normal”.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Wang also discussed border congestion with Amarsaikhan.

“[China] hopes that both sides work together to ensure smooth trade flow of goods at border ports on the basis of effective pandemic prevention,” Wang said.

Amarsaikhan in turn proposed an increase in the number of Chinese coal trucks entering the country to transport supplies across the border, a statement from the Mongolian government said. He also suggested more rail transport of coal to China.

The two parties agreed to increase Covid-19 control measures and to accelerate the implementation of China’s soft loan and grant projects.

China’s monthly imports of coal fell by 7 per cent to 28.05 million tonnes in August, according to Chinese customs data released on Tuesday.

Australia’s exports of both thermal and coking coal make up a big percentage of China’s coal imports, and are required to supplement shortages in local production. China does not produce enough coal to meet its demand.

Huang Jianjiang, an analyst at commodity research portal Bestanalyst, said in a note two weeks ago that coal supply from other countries has been unable to make up the supply gap left by Australian coal.

He also said domestic production was likely to be weaker than China’s official forecast, since many mines that are not monitored by authorities had cut production, while overproduction had been banned.

Chinese policymakers have said they will not tolerate hoarding and speculation of coal, and will show “zero tolerance” for illegal trading activities.

The price of coking coal exceeded 4,000 yuan (US$620) per tonne in some parts of the coal trading hub Shanxi province last week – a surge of more than 45 per cent since the beginning of August, according to Kaiyuan Securities.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planning agency, this week shut down the pricing indexes and two WeChat accounts of Yulin Coal Trading Centre, saying the company was publishing false information and was not authorised to collect, edit or publish news.

The firm has promised to “stop releasing false information about the coal market through any channels”, the NDRC said in a statement on Tuesday.

“All relevant companies, institutions and We-media should … prevent malicious speculation of coal prices, bidding up prices or hoarding.

“The NDRC will continue to strengthen information monitoring, while working with other departments to crack down on illegal activities, ensuring coal supplies and stabilising the price.”

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the Russian Federation D.Davaa had a meeting with Andrey Slepnev, Member of the Board – Minister in charge of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission, on September 6.

At the meeting, Mr. Andrey Slepnev proposed stepping up the development of draft report of the joint feasibility study on a free trade agreement to boost trade and economic cooperation between Mongolia and Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). It was mentioned that there are plans to finalize the draft joint study report within November 2021 and present it to a December meeting of the heads of state of EEU members for authorization to start official talks.

Ambassador D.Davaa undertook to put emphasis on developing the draft agreement with promptitude and pointed out the possibility of increasing the frequency of consultations.