Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

Mongolia

Country context

between 1940 and 2008, increased dust storms, shifts in precipitation patterns, which have decreased in winter months and increased in summer months, desertification and erratic extremes in winter temperatures. 7 Mongolia is a minor contributor to global climate change, with its total GHG emissions representing around 0.02 per cent of global emissions. As regards its per capita carbon emissions, however, Mongolia is above the global average, which is largely due it its coal-based energy sector, energy-intensive extractive industries and animal-based agriculture sector. 8 The energy sector contributes 50 per cent of Mongolia’s emissions, while agriculture contributes 49 per cent. The waste sector is a minor contributor, accounting for just 0.7 per cent of Mongolia’s total emissions in 2010, which is predicted to drop slightly to 0.6 per cent by 2030. The Mongolian Government has ratified the Paris Agreement and established Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) commitments to reduce its GHG emissions by 14 per cent compared with a business-as-usual scenario by 2030.Nearly all reductions in emissions are planned to come from the energy sector.

Mongolia is a landlocked country in north-eastern Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. With a population of just over 3 million in 2017 (Karev and Chhetri 2018), which is 1.78 people per km 2 , Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. In the last two decades, the country has experienced strong rural-to-urban migration: the capital, Ulaanbaatar, is now home to around half of the country’s total population. In this position as a primate city, Ulaanbaatar tops the urban hierarchy and has an outsized cultural, demographic and economic presence and influence. In primate cities typically, and Ulaanbaatar specifically, household waste problems are more severe and significant than in other settlements. Migration solutions and policies developed for primate cities will therefore set the standards for the whole country. Climate change context Mongolia’s ecosystems and ways of life are highly threatened by climate change. Changes already evident include an increase of 2.1°C in average temperature

ULAANBAATAR POPULATION &WASTE GENERATION

WASTE GENERATION PER YEAR

In early 2000s In 2015

ULAANBAATAR

MORE THAN 50% OF WASTE IS HOUSEHOLD WASTE

MONGOLIA

RECYCLING IS MAINLY TAKEN ON BY THE INFORMAL SECTOR

50,000 people

50,000 tons of waste

Sources: Asian Institute of Technology, 2016; World Bank, 2018.

POPULATION

Figure 2.

Gender and waste nexus

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