Mongolia, 2007

We are at the middle

of the road, halfway towards the 2015 deadline for

achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Eight

years are left is that much? Are we keeping the

pace? Measured against the history of the human race

it is but a sand particle in an hourglass. But measured

against the hopes and expectations of millions of

people living in abject poverty with no access to clean

water, for children with little prospect of gaining an

education and reaching their full potential in life, for

women dying in childbirth, for infants who will never

learn how to walk or talk or read and write, who are

taken away by preventable diseases that surely

amounts to much more than a sand particle.

By 2015 our peoples will judge whether the

pledges and commitments made by their leaders and

the international community as a whole were genuine.

They shall ascertain whether the conferences and

illustrious gatherings of the world leaders stand for

actual deeds or whether they simply equal empty words

and hollow promises. The eight years towards 2015 are

thus a litmus test of our credibility. To pass the test or

not is, therefore, upon us. We must deliver what we

pledged. We must achieve the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) and other internationally

agreed development goals. We must exert our best

efforts individually as nations and we must exert them

collectively as the international community.

In order to do this, we must now look back at our

individual progress so far. We must take stock of what

has already been achieved and what is yet to be done to

achieve the Goals on time. My country, Mongolia, is

intimately monitoring its own progress on the path

towards achieving the MDGs. The second national

report on MDG implementation in Mongolia has only

recently been considered by the national Government.

Implementation of the MDGs is about meeting

the basic needs of the people and securing their social

and personal welfare, and my Government is very

serious about delivering them for our people.

Unfortunately, despite the considerable efforts made,

success is still far from assured on a number of goals

and, first and foremost, on the goal to halve poverty.

On a global scale, the MDG progress report of

2007 revealed the same mixed picture. The report made

a strong case for concerted additional action to be

taken immediately and sustained until 2015 if the

world is to attain the MDGs. It argued that the lack of

any significant increase in official development

assistance since 2004 makes it impossible, even for

well-governed countries, to meet the MDGs.

Against that backdrop, I lend my full backing and

support to the proposal of the President of the General

Assembly to have an MDG leaders’ meeting here at the

United Nations. Such a meeting must, in our view, not

only serve as a midterm review mechanism, but also

coin concrete proposals and recommendations on the

way forward.

We are fully aware of our primary responsibility

for our own development, yet there are factors well

beyond our control that impede progress, and climate

change figures prominently among them. Climate

change is definitely no longer a subject of pure

scientific and academic discourse. Nations large and

small, coastal and landlocked alike, are feeling its

effects on their economies and the livelihoods of their

peoples. The recent report of the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change indicated that poor countries

will be the hardest hit by climate change, in spite of the

fact that they contribute the least to the phenomenon. Is

that fair?

The contribution of my country to global

warming is negligible at best, yet Mongolia is severely

affected by the negative consequences of climate

change. To give but a few examples, over the past 60

years the average temperature in Mongolia has risen by

almost 2°C, compared to a rise in the global mean

temperature of about 1°C over the last century. Some

80 per cent of the land surface has been degraded,

mostly by wind erosion combined with human

activities, including mining and overgrazing by

livestock. Desertification is rampant. Pastures that

support the semi-nomadic lifestyle of Mongols have

decreased and become more fragile. Over the past 40

years, soil fertility has decreased by a factor of two to

three. The country has been subject to the ever-more

frequent occurrence of natural disasters, such as

drought and dzud cold winters with heavy

snowfalls in recent years, which have had a severe

impact on the pastoral economy of the country.

Fair or not, no country can stand aside or afford

inaction in the face of such truly global challenges like

climate change. We all must carry our share of the

common endeavour, yet it is only natural that those

who contribute the most to global warming bear the

bulk of the burden. Hence, the industrialized countries

should fulfil their commitments to taking the lead in

reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and to

providing financial resources and transferring clean

technologies to developing countries.

The comprehensive implementation of the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol remains a priority

even as the international community embarks on the

road towards shaping the post-Kyoto framework. The

post-Kyoto framework should be flexible and diverse,

taking into consideration circumstances in each

country. It must include all the major emitters and

achieve compatibility between environmental

protection and economic growth by utilizing advances

in technologies to the greatest extent possible.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference

to be held in Bali in December will have a crucial role

in shaping such a future framework. We must seize the

opportunity and fully utilize the current session of the

General Assembly to build the groundwork for the Bali

Conference.

Regional and subregional mechanisms should

also be mobilized as complementary and

supplementary instruments to global efforts. Mongolia,

a North-East Asian country, attaches particular

importance to developing environmental cooperation

mechanisms in the subregion, as dust and sand storms

originating in the expanding Gobi desert have become

a familiar phenomenon for inhabitants of Beijing,

Seoul, Tokyo and beyond.

North-East Asia is one of the most dynamic and

diverse regions of the world. It contains some of the

world’s major economic powerhouses, such as China,

Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian

Federation, along with the smaller and more vulnerable

economies of Mongolia and the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea. The subregion is also home to a

quarter of the world’s population. The sheer size and

diversity of the subregion mean that climate change

manifestations are wide-ranging, yet intimately felt in

each and every country.

Mongolia has therefore come up with an initiative

to hold a North-East Asian summit on climate change

in the nearest future. We hope that such a high-level

event will achieve a breakthrough in regional

cooperation on climate change and serve as a tangible

contribution to global efforts.

Nationally, Mongolia has been making

continuous efforts to address the challenges posed by

climate change by appropriately improving its legal

environment and actively implementing various

programmes and projects. In 1996, a national action

plan to combat desertification was adopted. In 1999,

we established a national climate change committee

entrusted with formulating national policy on

adaptation to climate change and reduction of

greenhouse gases, preparing reports on national

greenhouse gas inventories, policies and measures. In

2000, the Government of Mongolia launched its

national action programme on climate change aimed

not only at meeting UNFCCC obligations, but also at

setting priorities for action and integrating climate

change concerns into other national and sectoral

development plans and programmes.

Furthermore, our MDG-based national

development strategy, the draft of which was recently

submitted to Parliament for its consideration and

approval, contains a separate chapter on environmental

policy. It identifies the protection of nature and the

environment, the reasonable use of natural resources,

and climate change concerns among national priority

goals. The draft strategy is expected to be approved by

Parliament this autumn.

On a more practical side, in 2005 my Government

launched a major programme on agroforestry

development, entitled Green Belt, in an attempt to

combat desertification, stop sand movement, and

reduce dust and sand storms. Upon its completion, a

great green wall will extend for 2,500 kilometres from

the East to the West of the country, shielding the

steppes from the Gobi desert.

In the energy sector, which is mostly based on

fossil fuels, particularly coal, the Government is

making continued efforts to introduce an alternative or

renewable source of energy. To that effect, the

construction of hydro-power plants has started, along

with the implementation of the 100,000 Solar Ger

programme.

The landlocked geographical situation of my

country is an additional hurdle for our development

efforts and MDG implementation. Indeed, our lack of

territorial access to the sea, remoteness from world

markets, and subsequent high transportation costs and

undue delays are major impediments to the trade of

landlocked developing countries. Higher trade costs

reduce a country’s welfare and inhibit economic

growth by making imports expensive and exports

uncompetitive.

Hence, Mongolia, together with other like-

minded countries, has endeavoured to raise the

awareness of the international community of the need

for support and assistance for land-locked developing

countries and to promote the common position and

interests of the group at both the United Nations and

the World Trade Organization. Here, I wish to highlight

the importance of the meeting of trade ministers of

land-locked developing countries and the thematic

meeting of land-locked developing countries and their

transit neighbours on trade and trade facilitation issues,

held last month in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of

Mongolia, for setting the priorities of the group in the

context of the Doha Round of multilateral trade

negotiations and in the lead-up to the midterm review

of the Almaty Programme of Action.

Security concerns continue to affect global

development. Despite our best efforts, the world

around us is still not a safe place for many. Millions

suffer on a daily basis from hunger, illness, insecurity

and the threat of violence. Thousands and thousands

perish in sectarian violence, terrorist attacks and

internal conflicts, with thousands more having fled

violence, thus augmenting the growing ranks of

refugees and internally displaced persons. All this

invariably takes a heavy toll on the development

aspirations of the affected countries.

Many of us come from countries not ravaged by

conflicts or from regions that lie thousands of miles

from conflict zones, yet, in this age of globalization,

none of us remains unaffected. Record-setting oil

prices triggered by the situation in the Middle East

have a profound impact on the world economy. Small,

vulnerable and commodity-dependent economies, such

as that of Mongolia, are hit hardest, along with other

oil-importing developing countries. However, it is

ordinary people in the Middle East who bear the brunt

of the suffering. The international community must

deliver a promise of peace and security to the peoples

of Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Darfur and other conflict

zones.

We must continue our global fight against

terrorism, with the United Nations at the helm of that

collective effort. The recent hostage crisis in

Afghanistan came as a sobering reminder of the threat

still posed by the Taliban. It proved once again that

terrorists prey on those who cannot fight back. Thus, it

is our solemn duty to offer protection to those who

cannot defend themselves.

Mongolia, a country with internationally

recognized nuclear-weapon-free status, is pleased with

the progress achieved in the six-party talks on the

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the latest

round of which took place last week in Beijing. As its

contribution to advancing the six-party talks, on 4 and

5 September Mongolia hosted a bilateral working

group session on the normalization of relations

between Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic

of Korea this year, and stands ready to continue such

efforts in the future.

Mongolia is heartened at the news about the

forthcoming inter-Korean summit meeting, to start

tomorrow. We are hopeful that it will contribute to the

cause of bringing about peace, security, and eventually

a peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. In

light of the promising political dynamics in the

subregion, Mongolia is optimistic that its early call for

a multilateral security cooperation mechanism in

North-East Asia will gain support in the subregion and

beyond.

With scores of countries having embarked in

recent decades on a path towards establishing modern

and functioning democratic societies built upon the

principles of pluralism, respect for human rights,

freedom of the press and democratic governance,

democracy has been firmly established as a truly

universal value.

We in Mongolia believe that democracy is the

best possible environment for sustained economic

growth. Democracy and respect for human rights have

been, in our view, inherently woven into the MDGs.

Proceeding from that premise, in 2005 Mongolia was

the first country to adopt a ninth MDG on

strengthening human rights and fostering democratic

governance.

We are proud of its successful democratic

transition, with major gains in the political, economic,

social and spiritual areas of our societal life. Yet, as a

young democracy, my country is also intimately aware

of the complex challenges faced by countries in

transition. We believe in international cooperation and

support for democratization efforts. In that regard,

Mongolia applauds the increased role of the United

Nations in fostering democracy and good governance,

not only through assistance in holding credible

elections, but through a wide range of activities to

promote democratic institutions and practices. The

United Nations Democracy Fund, which has already

funded over 100 projects around the globe, is a notable

example. The United Nations has also been an

important stakeholder in the success of the new or

restored democracies process.

Global challenges require global approaches, and

no other body is better equipped to serve as the

steering house of the collective efforts of the

international community than the United Nations. The

United Nations is the world’s most universal,

legitimate and authoritative organization. It is a true

political centre of global cooperation. It gives us

legitimacy. It gives us legality.

Our world Organization has embarked on a

process of reform in order to better respond to the

multifaceted challenges, both existing and emerging, in

this era of rapid globalization and its ensuing growing

complexities. Progress has been made in several reform

areas, yet greater efforts, combined with stronger

political will, are needed to follow through with

reforms related especially to the system-wide

coherence of the United Nations and the Security

Council. Mongolia has full confidence in Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon and supports his efforts aimed at

improving the management, efficiency and internal

cohesion of the United Nations system.

Our success as a community of nations in

tackling the challenges of climate change, achieving

the MDGs and other internationally agreed

development goals, countering terrorism, preventing

conflicts, promoting democracy and human rights, and

effectively addressing other pressing issues of today

largely depends on the success of that transformation.

The clock is ticking. We cannot afford to pursue

business as usual. If we are to honour, in good faith

and on time, the pledges and commitments we made to

our peoples, we must redouble our concerted efforts to

win this historic race.