AKIPRESS.COM - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has reviewed the environmental performance of Mongolia for the second time.

The second review of Mongolia will measure progress made and considers challenges encountered in the areas of air quality, water management, biodiversity and protected areas, soil protection, waste and chemicals management and greening the economy.

After Morocco (2022) and Mauritania (2023), the UNECE Environmental Performance Reviews (EPR) continue to reach beyond the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Mongolia has requested UNECE to undertake its second review, following the first in 2017.

Today, a multidisciplinary team of 17 international experts, met with 30 officials representing various environmental and sectoral authorities of Mongolia. Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Ariuntuya Dorjsuren, who facilitated the meeting, highlighted the importance of the EPR process in shaping and enhancing environmental governance in the country and for monitoring and attaining SDG implementation.

The team also met with representatives of international organizations active in the country and national NGOs. The experts will continue working in Ulaanbaatar until 25 September 2024, assessing the environmental performance of the country and examining developments during the past seven years.

This is the fifth EPR conducted outside of the UNECE region – which stretches across North America, Europe and Central Asia – since the establishment of the EPR Programme. UNECE EPRs provide a comprehensive tool to help countries identify key environmental challenges and establish concrete recommendations to improve environmental sustainability across all sectors.

Mongolia's legal, policy and institutional framework and regulatory and compliance assurance mechanisms relating to the environment will be reviewed, as well as the integration of environmental considerations into economic sectors. The review will also address the issues related to education for sustainable development, land management and health protection.

In addition, this review will assess the country's progress towards relevant targets and indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals. The review team will examine how the Goals are being adapted to the national context and how the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is put into practice, whether the necessary resources have been allocated and responsibilities are clear, what obstacles have been encountered when targeting the Goals and what concrete results have already been achieved.

Building on the analysis of progress made since 2017, the review will result in a set of recommendations on how to improve the country's environmental performance. The review process will culminate with the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy considering the recommendations in 2025, with a view to their adoption, and the country committing to implement them within the next 5 to 10 years.