1. Business Council of Mongolia
www.bcmongolia.org
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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.
3. Business Council of Mongolia
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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 and regulations that support
green development and provide incentive to private sector to go green. There are different regulations
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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 and regulations 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.
