Ulaanbaatar
Environment Minister takes part in global virtual ministerial meeting
Environment
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On September 3, Minister of Environment and Tourism D.Sarangerel participated in the Ministerial meeting of the Online Platform on a Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 and the website ‘Platform for Redesign 2020’. Decision-making representatives of 73 countries, such as Japan, the People’s Republic of China, and Australia attended in the meeting. With Japanese Minister of Environment Koizumi Shinjiro chairing the meeting, discussions were held in three sessions.
The first session addressed two of the current global crises, which are COVID-19 and climate change. During the session, presentations were done by Japanese Minister of Environment Koizumi Shinjiro, COP26 Finance Advisor Mark Carney, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and GEF-CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez.
As for the second session, ministers of 45 countries discussed measures being taken related to climate change and environmental protection as well as topics such as renewable energy, transportation, urban planning, and adaptation at the roundtable. Minister of Environment and Tourism D.Sarangerel expressed her views as representative of Mongolia during the meeting.
She said in her remarks, “The pressing issues for our country are the issues of water, air, and soil pollution. Banning the main cause for air pollution - raw coal consumption and replacing it with refined coal briquette reduced air pollution by 50 percent for the very first time in the last 20 years. In the coming 4 years, we are planning to have it reach 80 percent. Furthermore, in aims of reducing the emission of greenhouse gas in the energy sector, works have been started on feasibility study and assessment of environmental impact in the framework of establishing hydro power plants based on rivers. Although studies show that emissions of Mongolia take only 0.1% of the global total, I believe that it will have a significant impact on reaching the country’s nationally determined contribution to the Paris Agreement to reduce GHG by 22.7 percent by 2030.”
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In the last session, representatives of non-state actors (business, subnational, labor and civil society) discussed redesigning of socio-economy from their respective roles. The ministerial meeting started at 7 pm and ended at 11 pm local time.
