Smoke-free Ulaanbaatar Forum – 2 was held by Bloomberg TV Mongolia and Capital City Governor’s Office yesterday. It addresses the country’s urgent problem of smoke.

The forum touched upon clean air topics during the panel discussions of New Planning, Made in Mongolia and Accessible Funds, and involved representatives of the government, non-government organizations, private sectors, banking and financial sectors, as well as public representatives to discuss measures taken, to be taken in the future and various ways to resolve the problem. The AQI of Ulaanbaatar is currently around 2 - 5 thousand, which exceeds the hazardous level. The incidences of respiratory diseases in Ulaanbaatar alarmingly increased including a 2.7-fold increase in respiratory infections per 10,000 population in the last 10 years. Pneumonia is now the second leading cause for underfive child mortality in Mongolia.

Purevdavaa Davaakhuu, Advisor to the President of Mongolia in charge of policies on environment, urban and rural developments and issues of air pollution, sees that the reasons of air pollution are centralization, poverty and unemployment.

He stressed that ger district, which produces 80 percent of the air pollution as they fuel raw coal, is growing in size. He made a critical address towards several government policies, "Policy on regional development was mistaken as it did not address development of satellite towns. It needs to have renewed longterm urban planning that includes establishment of satellite towns around metropolis of Ulaanbaatar,” remarked Mr Purvedavaa.

He added that MNT19-32 billion were accumulated to the state budget from the tax on smoke producing sources since 2008. But small portion of the amount were allocated to reduce the smoke related problems. Last year, a total of MNT17 billion was collected to the budget from taxex on smoke producing sources. Although, MNT5 billion was allocated to the actions on air pollution reduction, only MNT4.5 billion were spent for the purpose.

Furthermore, the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city has made decisions to stop consumption of raw coal and stop domestic migration to ger districts in Ulaanbaatar from rural areas in order to reduce centralization.

Other panelists suggest that it is important to improve living standard by reducing unemployment. “The effectiveness of the expenditure for reducing smoke should be evaluated with numbers of generation of workplaces that used technology achievements,” highlighted MP Uchral Nyam-Osor. He adds that there is a need to support the development of industrialization and entrepreneurship. He then added that there is a need to address the problem and solve in integrated way by producing sound laws, such as the amendments to the Law on Legal Status of Ulaanbaatar, regarding the satellite towns.

Another panelist, Dulamkhorloo Baatar, Editor-in-Chief of the Official Gazette, urges to take resolute measure. “I believe that there is no family with children of early age, who have been sick and hospitalized because of respiratory diseases. Therefore, their parents have to ask for leave of several hours to several days from their employees,” she remarked.

Mrs Dulamsuren requires that the government should make clear policy and provide environment for implementing programs and projects presented regardless of the party. Naidalaa Badrakh, Head of Green Climate Fund Project Team, informs that there is no problem finding financial sources to fund eco-friendly and greenhouse gas reducing projects.

Green Climate Fund GCF is a financial mechanism under the UNFCCC which helps fund climate finance investment in low-emission, climate-resilient development through mitigation and adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries. They have a ready to implement project that will provide 100 thousand households with energy and insulation efficient houses worth MNT25-40 million utilizing eight percent mortgage loan program for up to 10 year term. He called to involve interested parties to implement this project. Currently there are 216 thousand households living in the ger district.

Oyunbayar.N

Published Date:2018-03-02