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ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT WORKING GROUP MEETING, 24 JUNE 2016

BCM’s Energy and Environment Working Group (EEWG) meeting was held on 24 June 2016 at the

UNDP office with the following agenda in attendance of 28 people.

Agenda of the Meeting

16:00 - 16:10

Opening & introduction by Bulganmurun Tsevegjav, Senior Program Officer, GGGI

and Co-Chair of BCM’s EEWG and Jon Lyons, Country Representative of GGGI and

Co-Chair of BCM’s EEWG

16:10 - 16:30 Energy Efficient Heating and Smart House Solutions by Oyunbat Tumurkhuyag,

Founder of Best Energy Savings LLC *

16:30 - 16:40 Q&A

16:40 - 17:30

Roundtable discussion with Mrs. Oyun Sanjaasuren, MP on her experiences of

leading United Nations Environmental Assembly and Solongo Khurelbaatar, (Former)

Assistant Advisor for Asia-Oceania, Ramsar Convention Secretariat on her work

experiences at RAMSAR convention*

17:30 - 18:00 Networking

*To download the presentations, click on each presentation. To see the videos presented during

Oyunbat’s presentation, click on below links:

- Video about Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution and government’s measures to reduce air pollution

- Video about smart socket

- Video about smart ger

SUMMARY OF THE MEETING

Oyunbat Tumurkhuyag, Founder of Best Energy Savings LLC

The first speaker introduced about the following energy efficient heating technologies and smart house

solutions that is developed by a local company called Best Energy Savings (BES) LLC:

- Vacuum Heater: developed in 2010 for ger district and household use, getting idea from the

NASA’s vacuum heater called “Heat Exchanger” that was developed in 1998.

- Vacuum Steam Boiler: does not use water and therefore reduces water consumption by 90%

compared to standard heating systems that run hot water, and save electricity consumption by

70%.

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- Smart Socket: turns off automatically when there is no consumption; therefore, avoids so-called

“energy vampire”, saves electricity consumption and reduces electricity bill.

- Smart Ger: modern ger with 2 floors and windows that can be built at MNT 30 million.

Key characteristic of their heating technologies:

- uses minimal electricity similar to those of lamps and therefore have lower operational cost

(lower electricity bills).

- does not freeze and can withstand cold up to -60°C, and is supplied with 1 year free service and

maintenance. Heaters were tested in conventional gers for 3 years.

- has reasonable cost lower than burning coal with conventional or efficient stoves.

BES products are currently developed abroad with assembly in Mongolia. But the local production will

start once the promised MNT 5 billion of investment will come from the government. According to T.

Oyunbat, Founder of BES, there is no similar heating technology in the world and the copyright of this

energy efficient vacuum heater is registered with BES only in Mongolia. Since 2010 they improved the

design of the vacuum heater with upgrade in 2014, and later developed the vacuum steam boiler, smart

socket and smart ger.

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MP Oyun Sanjaasuren, President of United Nations Environment Assembly

Second speaker was MP Oyun Sanjaasuren who shared her perspective on the following 4 areas:

- Air pollution and ger district – the top 2 issues of UB: Off-grid solutions for ger districts should be

in place to tackle its issues such as sanitation, heating and all other problems that are associated with

ger districts.

- Need to leapfrog, but how? There is a strong need to leapfrog from brown to green economy as the

world population is projected to increase dramatically over the next decades. Thus, world needs to be

smarter in terms of consumption and be more resource efficient. In order to do so, first of all,

sustainable energy source and investment in green technology is critical. Over 1200 buildings are

required in education sector in Mongolia. Currently, there is not much capacity to develop these green

buildings and kindergardens at most reasonable price as it requires sufficient research to develop the

design, choose technology etc. Cost of green buildings is estimated to be 30-40% higher than

conventional buildings. Therefore, we need to find a way to cover the difference of additional expense

through sources like Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Joint Crediting Mechanism among others.

Investment opportunities will open up from 2020 as the GCF plans to invest USD100 billion annually.

Xac Bank is currently working to get accreditation for GCF funding. The Mongolian Bankers

Association is working on Sustainable Finance and Green Credit Fund. More attention needs to be

made on green bonds, Social Impact Investment and climate finance.

- “Education for Sustainable Development” Project – good start in changing mindset

ESD project, implemented by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Environment, Green

Development and Tourism (MEGDT) of Mongolia developed a curriculum for elementary and

secondary schools about sustainable development and included them in the textbook. Currently, they

are working on the curriculum for high schools. Another objective of this project is to educate and

inform public, journalists and Ministry officials about sustainable development and to develop a TV

program to raise public awareness. She admitted that the Project Director Amgalan and their team are

doing good campaign to change the mindset of people.

- Suggestion to BCM’s Energy and Environment Working Group

MP Oyun suggested that BCM should send an official letter to the Ministry of Environment, Green

Development and Tourism requesting to get a full list of laws, policies, regulations and government

orders that support green development and provide incentive to private sector to go green. There are

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different regulations and tax incentives on the sale of locally produced or assembled renewable energy

technologies like solar panels or tax incentives on importing renewable energy, and incentives for

reducing air pollution. However, all of this documents are not compiled, and therefore it would be

good for BCM to share the full list to all members.

Solongo Khurelbaatar, (Former) Assistant Advisor for Asia-Oceania, Ramsar Convention

Secretariat

The last speaker was Solongo who shared her experience working for Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in

Switzerland. Adopted in 1971, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is the first of modern

intergovernmental environmental treaties. Solongo described the types of wetlands, its ecosystem

services, implementation pillars of the convention, the concept of “wise use” of wetlands, Ramsar

regional initiatives and how regional collaboration should be improved using Ramsar Convention as a

tool.

Follow-up Action:

BCM will send official letter to MEGDT to request a full list of laws, policies, regulations and

government orders that support green development and provide incentive to private sector in developing

green projects. Letter will be sent before Naadam and will be shared to all members and posted on BCM

website once received.

To see the meeting summaries of previous meetings or other BCM Working Groups, please click here.

For more information about this or upcoming meetings, please contact Bayarmaa Amarjargal, Senior

Manager of BCM at Bayarmaa@bcmongolia.org.