The capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar continue to rank among the most polluted cities in the world. This year’s extreme air pollution demonstrated the failure of a series of government policies, highlighting the amount of financial resources wasted on ineffective fixes in the past decade. The culmination of inefficient policies, undeliverable goals, redundant short-term solutions, and the resident’s dependence on coal is wreaking havoc on Mongolians’ health and longevity.

Ulaanbaatar is one of the coldest cities in the world due to its high elevation. The capital is also surrounded by mountains and hills that traps carbon, smog, and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). In the first week of January 2025, Ulaanbaatar ranked as the fourth most-polluted city in the world in the Air Quality Index (AQI). In comparison to manufacturing hubs in India, Bangladesh, and China – which all take leading positions among the world’s most polluted countries as well – in Mongolia’s case, pollution is caused more by burning raw coal, polluting automobiles, and unregulated settlers in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, among other factors.

In September 2024, the Ministry of Economy and Development, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Health, and National Center for Public Health, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the EU office in Mongolia, organized “Air Pollution Investment Case” to address the dire need to solve Mongolia’s air pollution. Experts highlighted that air pollution causes 2,839 deaths annually, and household air pollution leads to over 4,300 deaths each year.

Mongolian policymakers, in tandem with receiving millions in assistance from global partners, have talked about eliminating coal burning and reducing air pollution for decades. The pledge to reduce coal consumption as a domestic heat source in the ger districts has been used for political advantage. To many policymakers, embracing that narrative was important to attract financial support from international organizations and partners, yet little has been done to actually implement the necessary changes.

Researchers and working groups have consistently (for example, in 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021) assessed that Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution is a major public health issue and a major contributing factor to an increase of brain and respiratory diseases, pregnancy losses, and cancers. For over a decade, these and similar assessments have recommended the following steps:

First, completely eliminate coal burning as a domestic heat source and replace it with natural gas, or provide clean coal as an interim solution. Second, continue to remove gers and provide alternative housing with appropriate insulation, such as apartments or houses. Third, continue to eliminate indoor smoking, particularly inside homes. Fourth, work on regulations eliminating diesel and other vehicular exhaust within the city. And fifth, move to mandate clean-emission natural gas, electric, or hybrid vehicles as much as possible within the city.

For decades, experts have warned that the main culprit for Mongolia’s air pollution is the burning of coal and the lack of modern engineering infrastructure that can support clean air systems. Advocacy groups and development banks have recommended and financed many, many projects and initiatives to address the issue. A decade later, these recommendations, however, seem to be nothing but so many PDF files.

According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, “In 2017, air pollution in the country’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar was found to be 7.5 times higher than the safe limit, leading the National Security Council of Mongolia to declare that air pollution had reached disaster levels, derived sources including the household energy, transportation, coal, and wastes sectors.”

In 2018, the government pledged $55 million to reduce air pollution, including by phasing out coal burning. So far, these pledges have not materialized, nor have the goals been reached – such as a target to halve air pollution by 2025. In 2017, Mongolia had a yearly average of 62 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 particles. In 2023, the level had crept up to 73.

Programs supported by international partners have come to similar ends. As NPR noted in a 2019 article, “with support from the World Bank, the government distributed low-emission stoves a few years ago, but that program fizzled out in 2015.”

Since 2019, the Mongolian government has made some efforts in reducing air pollution by banning the use of raw coal. However, given the socioeconomic status of the working class, it is fiscally impossible for people to buy higher priced coal. The 58 percent of the city’s workforce who currently live in ger districts have little or no access to infrastructure that can actually help to introducing clean-air cooking and heating systems. These ger districts both contribute to and are heavily affected by air pollution.

Former Minister of Environment and Tourism Oyunkhorol Dulamsuren stated that “between 2011 and 2015, the government spent more than $37 million, plus $47 million from international donors, on tackling air pollution.” For example, in cooperation with with UNICEF, several projects and research initiatives have been conducted to test stove efficiency, particularly in the ger districts. Yet all these initiatives – and all that money – had come to naught.

By assessing from the millions of dollars spent on tackling air pollution, it begs the question where do all these funds go if there has not been a notable improvement of the city’s engineering and infrastructure?

In response to the government’s inability to fix the air pollution crisis, the Mongolian public has demonstrated consistently between 2016 and 2024. Every winter, Mongolian parents in particular voice their concerns over the impact of increasing air pollution on their and their children’s health and well-being. Unfortunately, managing air pollution has become a normal part of Mongolians’ daily life during the months of November to late March.

In December 2024, another peaceful demonstration took place in Sukhbaatar Square. Human rights and children’s advocacy groups and individuals demanded that the government, headed by Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, tackle air pollution.

In response, Oyun-Erdene held an irregular session one day before the New Year to address the nation on the severity of the air pollution. Some of the solutions the Cabinet proposed include creating a public transit system, building a freeway, insulating 95,000 households in the ger district.

While these are good talking points, measures like creating a public transit system to reduce automobile smog and building a freeway to reduce the cars on the roads in Ulaanbaatar will take years. For decades, Mongolian policymakers have discussed transit systems like Japan’s or public metro systems like those in Moscow and Beijing. To this day, none has materialized. Instead, the Mayor’s Office and municipalities prefer short cuts and short-term solutions like installing air purifiers and exhorting the public to wear facemasks. For example, the Mayor’s Office implemented a policy that restricts cars to drive on every other day, depending on their license plate number.

As evidenced by the continuing air pollution crisis, however, such approaches have a minimal impact on solving air pollution. But they have made the daily lives of Ulaanbaatar residents more difficult as they have to manage the daily commute to work or dropping their children to school.

With that history in mind, despite the Cabinet meeting and Oyun-Erdene’s address, residents of Ulaanbaatar remain uncertain and not confident in the latest measures. The so-called new measures – such as increasing investments and financial support to reduce air pollution, “constructing energy-efficient and green residential towns, expanding the road network, [and] supporting the development of public transportation systems” – have been empty political promises for decades. Without more holistic fixes such as ensuring proper access to city sewage systems, electricity, and clean water supplies, short-term solutions such as the insulation of 95,000 households are a waste of public financial resources.

Despite these narratives on combating air pollution and modernizing the ger district, it seems that Mongolia’s working class, especially the 38 percent of people living in poverty, will continue to depend on burning coal to hear their homes.

With air pollution as a leading crisis, the Ulaanbaatar Development Index dropped to 0.474, receiving an F grade in 2024. The index assess quality of life, implementation of policies, and competitiveness, with 1.000 as the highest possible score. Mongolia’s long-term development goals include a target to improve Ulaanbaatar’s score to 0.9, but given the slow progress on renewable energy, much less housing initiatives to transfer ger districts to apartment units, this winter does provide much reason for hope.

The current government’s growing economic incentives are not quite translated toward making the Mongolian households any healthier. The lack of policy and implementation continuity from the Mayor’s Office only make things worse. A growing sense of unhappiness and daily frustration over air pollution are the lived realities of Mongolians living in Ulaanbaatar during the harsh winter months. Given Mongolia’s sparse population, a grand bargain for economic goals cannot come at the cost of the Mongolian people’s health, happiness, and longevity.

BY Bolor Lkhaajav

Bolor Lkhaajav is a researcher specializing in Mongolia, China, Russia, Japan, East Asia, and the Americas. She holds an M.A. in Asia-Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco.