Bloomberg TV Mongolia has organised a forum entitled ‘Smogless Ulaanbaatar-2’ at the capital’s Blue Sky hotel. This is the second forum to be held this year and is being co-organised by the Ministry of Construction & Urban Development and the Mongolian Mortgage Corporation HFC LLC. During the forum, ‘Fresh Air- New Planning’ discussion was held.

The first forum was organised on 10 January and held discussions under the titles of ‘Housing- Fresh air’, ‘Housing- Market’ and ‘Housing –Stable Funding’. During the event, participants noted that Ulaanbaatar’s toxic air is being blamed for 79 percent of respiratory diseases. Over the winter months, the Mongolian capital becomes one of the world’s most heavily polluted cities—in December it experienced pollution levels four times higher than World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

At least 60 percent of all pollution in Ulaanbaatar is caused by the stoves of the 200,000 households in the so-called ger districts. The rest is due to transportation, thermal power plants, and solid waste. The Mongolian government has implemented many projects and programmes for decreasing air-pollution such as distributing clean-burning stoves.

According to officials, a total of MNT 9.8 billion is needed to decrease air-pollution in Ulaanbaatar by 2025.