STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF MONGOLIA AT THE LEADERS’ SESSION OF THE 2021 P4G SEOUL SUMMIT
On May 30th, President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga delivered a speech to the 2021 P4G Summit taking place in Seoul, the Republic of Korea.
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset, I wish to extend my sincere appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Korea for organizing this summit in these difficult times when every country in the world is fighting with the pandemic.
Over the past several years, we negotiated too many times and pledged ambitious goals to combat climate change, reduce environmental degradation and conserve the nature. Unfortunately, the implementation and concrete results are extremely unsatisfactory.
Mongolia is one of the most affected and vulnerable countries by the climate change. The frequency of natural hazards doubled in the last two decades and their economic impacts are increasing.
We must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to prevent natural disasters and damages resulting from the climate change. This is the basic and most effective way to protect our planet. Every country pledged to define and implement its national goal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions with the framework of the Paris Agreement. For Mongolia, we increased our initial commitment from 22.7 percent to 27.2 percent by 2030.
Dear delegates,
There is an urgent need to intensify the transition to environment friendly green technologies through public-private partnerships.
For this reason, shortly after my election as the President of Mongolia I made a concrete proposal to establish and implement a “North East Asian Super Grid” renewable energy project, which is one of the green technologies, during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
The Mongolian Gobi desert, which sees 270 sunny and clear days per year, is the world’s second largest solar energy source after the Sahara desert. We have a big potential to use this abundant source to generate electricity, reduce peak demand for electricity in countries such as South Korea and also store electricity using seasonal and time zone differences.
The renewable energy network is the most optimal and economic solution for protecting the environment.
Time and climate change will not wait us. We call on all countries to take decisive, effective and concrete actions to transform our economic recoveries after the pandemic into the environment friendly “green” model and start to fulfill our commitments made before the international community while every country is overcoming the pandemic with less damage.
Thank you for the attention.