Closing Workshop of the “Nationally Appropriate Mitigations Actions in the construction sector of Mongolia” project

September 29, 2020

Opening Remarks by Ms. Nashida Sattar

Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Mongolia

29 September 2020

Novotel Hotel

Your Excellency Mr. Magnaisuren, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues

On behalf of UNDP Mongolia, I am pleased to welcome you to the closing of the Nationally Appropriate Mitigations Actions project or NAMA in short, funded by the Global Environmental Facility and jointly implemented by the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development and UNDP Mongolia.

As we all are aware, we can no longer ignore the immediate impacts of climate change on people’s lives and the surrounding environment. It is not by chance that SDG 13 is on Climate Actions.

Mongolia’s estimated 11.51 tons of C02 eq. (Eleven point five tons of Ci-o two equivalent) per capita emission is one of the highest within the countries with similar Human Development Index. Specifically, the energy sector in Mongolia is by far the largest contributor with comprising more than 50% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. At the current rates, Mongolia’s greenhouse gas emissions is expected to double the 2014 levels by 2030. Within the energy sector, buildings represent the second highest energy consumption and therefore, the mitigation potential is enormous. To support the Mongolian Government’s efforts to reduce its GHG emissions, we implemented series of projects in the construction sector from the late 1990s, the last of which is the NAMA project.

In little over three years of its implementation, the NAMA project made significant contributions in advancing energy efficiency in the construction sector.

With its support, Mongolia now has a baseline for greenhouse gas emissions based on the study conducted on over 3,000 buildings, which was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2020.

The first ever web-based greenhouse gas emission inventory and Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification system were developed and formally adopted by the Ministry.

One of the most successful outcomes of the project was six pilot projects in urban and rural settings where we helped optimize and equip the existing and new

buildings with energy saving and heat loss reducing technologies. The demos will save 48 thousand tonnes of CO2 during the project lifetime, which serves as a great example of how much more we can achieve through such initiatives.

Furthermore, the increased human resource capacity is highly crucial to sustain the energy efficiency initiatives and the progresses made in this area. The project provided training opportunities for over 420 professionals, women and men, and supported creation of over 50 jobs in the energy saving roles.

We have no doubt that the Mongolian Government will ensure sustaining the project outcomes.

Building on these outcomes and our strong partnerships, UNDP Mongolia is continuing its support to the Government of Mongolia in climate change mitigation through our successor project, focusing specifically on Nationally Determined Contributions.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank everyone here today for your active engagement and contribution to a successful implementation of the NAMA project. We hope for the same level of collaboration on the new NDC project.

Thank you.