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.