Beneath a sapphire sky that seems to stretch on forever, Mongolia sits at an elevation that affords incredible views while it basks in over 250 days of sunshine per year. Famed for its rich history, the landlocked country is home to a little over 3 million people, many of whom still practice a nomadic lifestyle.
Vibrant tourism and the rapidly growing natural resource sectors are bringing major opportunities for development, but are also challenges for sustainability. Mongolia has the lowest rate of resource efficiency in the Asia-Pacific region, needing 17 kg of natural resources per dollar of economic output, compared to the regional average of 3 kg.
In 1970, Mongolia extracted 14 million tonnes of materials from the environment – including the mining, agriculture and forestry sectors. By 2015, this increased to 126 million tonnes, of which over 100 million tonnes were abiotic minerals (fossil fuels, minerals and metal ores), an average of 43 tonnes per person per year or 118kg per person every single day.
The country has taken up the challenge of making its resource use more efficient through its new Action Plan for the National Green Development Policy which has Sustainable Consumption and Production as a first strategic objective. The Plan aims to “promote resource efficient and low waste technologies for the mineral resources sector”, bringing Mongolia’s resource efficiency closer to regional levels. The Action Plan is complemented by Mongolia’s Sustainable Development Vision policy framework, providing a cohesive macro-economic and detailed sectoral vision.
The United Nations Environment is helping the country mainstream resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production into its economic development by strengthening its policy framework and monitoring capacity for resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production.
“Last year, the United Nations Environment Programme launched a database of resource use indicators at the first Ministerial Environmental Forum, which I had the honour of Chairing. As a Mongolian citizen, it shocked me to understand that Mongolia suffers from the lowest level of resource efficiency in the region. I immediately asked UNEP to provide support to Mongolia in becoming more resource productive, starting with ensuring these numbers reach policy makers,” said Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren, Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren, Chair, Global Water Partnership and former Minister of Environment and Development Member of Parliament, Mongolia.
United Nations Environment, through the European Union-funded SWITCH-Asia Programme is supporting the implementation of Sustainable Consumption and Production sectoral policies in Mongolia including applications of resource use indicators.
Two capacity building workshops were organized in Mongolia in May 2016 to strengthen the monitoring of key policies that outline a vision for the use of natural resources for production, consumption and export. The workshops reviewed national policy frameworks relevant to Sustainable Consumption and Production and the statistics needed to monitor resource use.
“As a developing nation, sustainable consumption and production is a popular theme in Mongolia. It can unite all stakeholders in the country as we implement the Green Development Policy Action Plan," said H.E. N. Battsereg, Minister of Environment, Green Development and Tourism.
The National Action Plan for Green Development Policy has 255 areas of action under six strategic objectives. Not only is SCP and resource efficiency the first strategic objective, these are integral in more than 50 action items in the Plan, giving rise to hope that Mongolia’s blue sky will indeed be eternal.
Learn more at: http://www.switch-asia.eu/
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Satwant Kaur, Regional Information Officer, UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Tel: + (66 2) 2882127; Mobile: +(66 8) 17001376, Email: satwant.kaur@unep.org
