Abstract
Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, suffers from severe air pollution during the long winter months, and its air pollution levels are among the highest in the world. Residents in the ger areas of Ulaanbaatar are unable to take advantage of the laws and policy regulations to reduce air pollution despite years of efforts to address this issue by international and local organizations including the government of Mongolia (GoM). Important challenges and barriers that have limited the success of various governmental policies that tackle air pollution problems were identified through participatory approaches. In order to do this, personal interviews were conducted with various stakeholders such as officials from central and local governments, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and academia. Moreover, a workshop was conducted to elucidate the views of ger area community members in Ulaanbaatar. Based on the results of these interviews and workshop, the gaps between the policy approaches of the government, the actual conditions, and the desired situations of the residents to improve air quality in Ulaanbaatar were analyzed. The large gaps that were identified between the national and local perspectives on air pollution issues demonstrated that the reduction of air pollution in Ulaanbaatar requires solving fundamental and complex problems based on a better understanding of the specific conditions and needs of the residents of the ger areas. Moreover, active participation and discussion of the residents at the workshop indicated that community-based approaches could be applied in the cultural context of Mongolia with promising results in finding solutions.
Highlights
Air pollution is a significant cause of disease and death rates, and the greatest health impacts from air pollution worldwide occur among the poorest and most vulnerable populations [1]
There has been a steady flow of literature arguing for a participatory type of officials of central and local government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international policy analysis that emphasizes the need for social interaction in order to be able to change current organizations, and academia to identify the current situation of air pollution in Ulaanbaatar and their risk policies [30]
The officer added that the winter of 2017 was extremely cold when compared with the previous year leading to a high quantity of energy use for heating in each household, which made the air pollution worse
Summary
Air pollution is a significant cause of disease and death rates, and the greatest health impacts from air pollution worldwide occur among the poorest and most vulnerable populations [1]. Developing countries suffer the greatest impact from air pollution in terms of life, economic loss, and environmental degradation. Air pollution is recognized as a pressing sustainability concern and it is directly mentioned in two sustainable development goals (SDG) targets: SDG 3.9 (substantial reduction of health impacts from hazardous substances) and SDG 11.6 (reduction of adverse impacts of cities on people) [3]. Around 3 billion people—more than 40% of the world’s population—largely in developing countries, still rely on biomass fuels for their domestic energy needs [4].
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