Intervention by Mr. Tsakhia Elbegdorj, President of Mongolia

Mr. Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlement,

Greetings from snowy Mongolia. Usually at this time of year we have a golden autumn, but a couple of days ago, Mongolia was severely hit by snow and dust storms. We lost our harvest, and had human casualties. This is a real evidence of climate change.

Mongolia is a hotspot of global warming with an average temperature rise 3 times higher than the world average. Seventy per cent (70%) of our lands is under threat of desertification.

1. Adaptation
Recognition that a “business as usual” emission pathway without a sharp peak and decline well before 2020 means many vulnerable states, communities and ecosystems will reach the point where adaptation is no longer possible.

2. Mitigation
Developed countries are expected to make significantly stronger emissions reduction commitments. These commitments should be binding to absolute emission reduction targets at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The developing world expects the developed countries to substantially contribute to mobilizing funds for mitigation and adaptation activities.

3. Technology
We need to drastically improve the deployment of low-carbon, efficient and sustainable technologies. At the same time, Research and Development and Deployment spending has to be increased, especially for renewable, energy efficiency and safe monitoring technologies.

4. Financing
The world expects us to come to Copenhagen ready to agree to mobilize financial resources on the necessary scale. We have to identify new and additional predictable funding to be delivered through effective mechanisms. This support must be new and additional to ODA, and the vast majority of it should be paid into the Copenhagen Climate Facility.

Excellencies,

Much of the responsibility to confront these challenges lies with us. It takes a shrewd vision and strong leadership to effectively respond to climate change.

Progress within the negotiations has been disappointingly slow. And leadership from some of the largest countries – both at home and abroad – has been disappointingly absent.
But I remain optimistic that we can come together to forge a new global agreement in December on all of these elements.

I recently gave a speech to school children on their first day of class and explained to them the two pillars of our national policy – development of people and preservation of nature. I told them to start with the simple lessons I learned as a child – clean your ladle well, don’t cut standing trees, take only the fallen wood. The children understood the lesson. And that, in turn, gives me inspiration and optimism, and responsibility as well to make sure that we boldly act on the larger lesson.

Thank you.