Transport and Covid-19: responses and resources

Decarbonising Pathways for Urban Mobility in Mongolia

Mongolia flag
The national study for Mongolia focuses on decarbonising the public transport sector in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. The study comprises three tasks: an analysis of the urban transport context in Ulaanbaatar, a quantitative assessment of decarbonising pathways and the dissemination of findings.

In Mongolia, the first task is understanding the urban transport context in Ulaanbaatar. Collaborating with the Ministry of Road and Transport Development (MRTD) and Ulaanbaatar City, the ITF first conducted a fact-finding mission to engage with key stakeholders and identify current transport policies and mobility plans in Ulaanbaatar.  ITF experts also used this mission as a chance to collect relevant data for the subsequent quantitative assessment.

The second task of the project is to conduct a quantitative assessment of decarbonising pathways for Ulaanbaatar. ITF first held a stakeholder workshop to identify and design future policy scenarios. Then, the modelling team refined the existing ITF model to accommodate city-specific data and developed a tailored urban transport model to assess the effectiveness of different policy pathways to reduce CO2 emissions and increase public transport coverage. The tool allows for a projection of CO2 emissions up to 2050 under a baseline scenario consisting of existing and committed policies to be compared with the “Current Policy” and “Climate ambitious” scenarios that allow for further decarbonisation. It also provides policy guidance on the most effective way to achieve the climate ambitions in Ulaanbaatar, focusing on the role of public transport development, such as LRT construction or bus fleet upgrade. ITF modellers will then hand over the model to their partners in Mongolia following a technical training session, allowing the relevant stakeholders to use the tool for their own purposes.

Finally, the project wraps up by disseminating the identified findings and best practices for a low-carbon urban mobility system in Ulaanbaatar. The ITF organises several events with the MRTD and Ulaanbaatar City to disseminate recommendations for the decarbonisation of Ulaanbaatar’s transport system and the best practices identified during the work among other interested stakeholders in Mongolia and Central Asia.

This work is a part of the Sustainable Infrastructure Programme in Asia (SIPA-T) project, which helps decision-makers in Central and Southeast Asia to identify ways to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of transport networks.