Media Briefing on Mayor's Forum - Press Conference, UNCCD COP17

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, members of the press and the media here in the room and virtually. Welcome to this press conference that is organized by the governor of Ulaanbaatar and the various partners who are involved in the COP17 Mayors Forum. on desertification, which started this morning. And so we are very happy to brief you on the proceedings of the Mayor's Forum that took place this morning and which will continue this afternoon and ultimately lead to a declaration, the Ulaanbaatar Declaration for Local and Regional Governments to the parties of COP17 and hopefully will find its way into the COP decision that will come out of COP17 next week. So the Mayors Forum is essentially a gathering of mayors and local and regional government leaders as well as representatives of their networks and United Nations agencies that are working intensively on urban issues around the world, global urban issues, and that impact the urban areas as such, but more importantly also have therefore a need for discussions with global negotiators as the ones that are here these two weeks in Ulaanbaatar talking about land degradation and desertification. I am very happy to have a number of speakers here today who will address you, and I will raise a number of questions, pointed questions that will allow to highlight the story that we have to tell as local and regional governments. And one thing, one message that I would like to leave you already with just right now and today is to say that local and regional governments, cities around the world are by land degradation and drought, flooding, climate change, biodiversity loss. They are impacted, but they are also a cause of those crises of which we are. So finding together solutions with parties, with national governments is of absolutely an essence and is essential. We need to find ways how at the various levels of government in our states and nations, as well in our cities and the global level, we find ways of inter-articulating the solutions for the global problems that we are facing all together. So at the UNCCD here in particular, we want to draw the attention of the parties on the gap that is still existing between the talk at the one hand and at the other hand, the solutions and the practical implementation of the decisions that are being taken here in Ulaanbaatar as well. as in other COPs. And so that's basically the essence of our discussion here today. We have speakers here from various regions and from various levels of government. First of all, I'm very pleased to introduce to you the governor of Ulaanbaatar, our host and guest of honor, Mr. Purevdagva Bayuranzan, then the Deputy Mayor of the City of Bonn in Germany, Madam Sauter, the Regional Government Councillor of the Region of Aude in France, Mr. Andre Viola, the Senior Policy Representative from UN-Habitat, Mrs. Fiona McLooney, And I think we were hoping to have also a representative of the Green Climate Fund, but he may be just coming in later. With that, I would like to kick off this press conference for you and go merely to the governor of Ulaanbaatar. And so, Mr. Governor, this COP and the Mayors Forum is happening in your city, in the capital city of Mongolia. And Ulaanbaatar has a number of initiatives that you are putting up front, in particular, also taking the occasion of COP17. So maybe from your perspective and from Ulaanbaatar's perspective, why is it necessary to sit here today at the grounds of a UN negotiation field? And what has that to do with Ulaanbaatar? And perhaps also, what are the initiatives that you wish to bring forward in relation to the discussions here today? So I give you the floor, Governor, please.

Thank you, Gino. First of all, I would like to say thank you for UNCCD and UN-Habitat and ICLEI for co-organizing COP17, especially for the City Mayors Forum. So this City Mayors Forum is the very first like City Mayors Forum organizing and held during the COP17. So that is why it's so crucial for having City Mayors Forum in Lambator. So like for the first city mayors forum, we need to like get a like more productive results from these discussions. So for this forum, discussion and discussing is not enough. We need to like focus on more implementation and got like more real and relative results. So the number of participants of the city mayor's forum is not bad. We got like 27 representative and the mayors from 27 cities and even representatives from like over 30 countries. even participating over 50 international organizations like joining the City Mates Forum. So that network will help to solve all the problem for like facing all the cities. Desertification and land degradation is not only like problem for Ulaanbaatar or for Bonn. It's like interconnected problem for each cities like existing in the world. That is why we need to like unite and participate and cooperate. And after that cooperation will help to solve the problem together in a like global level. So for during this city mayors forum we're focusing on to get new network like city to city partnership that will be helping to like implement small and other projects for each cities and other level is like global level, which means like I'm, I'm, I mentioned like city mayors forum, which helped to like, uh, solve the problem all regionally and globally. So we like talking about the city mayors forum is not only one day discussion or two day discussions. We will like to be continuing to, uh, organize this city mayors forum for next two years. the next Forum will be held in Ankara as we like discussed before after that just like we discussed and given the invitation to born in Germany yeah before 2028 yes so the like representatives of city mayors formed there from like each uh like part of the world like from South America from Europe and Southeast Asia and Central Asia that that's that is such a great like cooperation so after that during the city M's Forum the lamb butter will like sign couple of amous and contracts which is really like productive and helpful to so all like lamb butters problem that we face such as air pollution and like traffic, the lack of infrastructure, et cetera. So just like 30 minutes ago, I just signed MOU with World Bank to implement projects for solving or the flood and like highways, even like constructions, even tram projects as well. After that press, I will like sign more five MOU and contracts with UNDP and even like other sponsorship and private sectors from other countries to invest for green financing and green projects to implement in Mongolia and Ulaanbaatar especially. So that is the results of this City Mayors Forum and Even we got really good network and really good team to like team up for solving problems, exempling for us, right? So after this press, the discussions will be continue for like shifting into next level. Yeah, that is the answers of the questions. Thank you for that. And we will declare Ulaanbaatar Declaration in the afternoon. It's not just a declaration. We will focus on like action and implementation of this declaration together. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Governor. I would like now to give the floor to Madam Ursula Sauter, Deputy Mayor of the City of Bonn in Germany. Dr. Sauter, Bonn has also in the past hosted a Leaders Forum like this one here, I think even back in the end of the 90s. So hearing also what the governor has said with regard to the Mayors Forum this year here in his city, what do you think has changed since? 30 years perhaps since the leaders forum in Bonn at that time and where would you think we are here today and what maybe also you would think needs to be done further and so maybe if you can give a couple of you know of insights from your side both from perhaps as the city of Bonn which is also a host of a number of United Nations agencies but But also as a city itself that is confronted with, um, with, with similar impacts that are being discussed here in terms of land degradation and, um, climate change impacts.

Well, thank you. Thank you, Gino. Indeed, we've been very fortunate in Bonn because we hosted in 1999 in the last millennium, we hosted the first World Forum of Mayors on Cities and Desertification. That was a starting point. And if you look back, we've come a long way. At the time, I don't think anybody would have thought that we would be ending up here at the COP17 with given a voice. given space to exchange views, to come up with our suggestions for solutions for the problems that we face and to be able to feed them into the general declaration that is going to come out of this COP. So looking back, we've come a long way, which is great. Bonn, of course, has profited from the process of turning this exchange between mayors into a systemic thing. You mentioned that Bonn is home to now 27 UN agencies, soon to be 28 when UNDP comes to Bonn. UN Women with the trust fund joined last year. And what that has shown us is that we urgently need the exchange between the international level, between the national level, And the municipal level, and we have profited as a city from this exchange because, um, like instant, for instance, we, um, decided to become part of the, um, safe cities and safe public spaces initiative of UN Women, which is something which is going to affect people on the ground. And that's what we always have to think about when we talk about issues. It's not about theory, it's about practice, and it's not about a vague international entity. It's about people on the ground in our cities and of course our rural regions. So We are very grateful that we can tap into these resources and we strongly encourage other cities to do that. We are a member of members of many city networks that we believe are crucial like UNESCO learning cities like the daring cities like ICLAY, UCLG and we do need these for to reach critical mass together to make our voices heard on the higher levels.

Thank you very much. Madam Salter, let me now turn to a regional government of the region of Aude in France. And we have the pleasure of having here Councillor Mr. Andre Viola with us. Andre, you can, if you wish, you can speak in English, but you can also speak in French. There is translation available on channel one and two for English, French, if you prefer. Go ahead, Andre. In terms of my question to you is maybe a little bit similar to Madam Salter in terms of Madam Salter representing a city, you are representing a region, in this case in France. Do you see similarities or do you see differences in terms of the approaches that at regional level or at city level one has to take when it comes to land degradation? and desertification. I would imagine that in France, the region and the regional government has some particular competencies to interact with the municipalities of that region and to design perhaps plans and other activities for that. So please, Andre, the floor is yours.

Thank you. I'm beginning in English and we'll see. So first of all, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your warm welcome and your hospitality. So I speak here like a counselor of the department in France, in the south of France, and also as spokesperson of water in UCLG. All the cities in the world are concerned by climate change. And we have solution. You say, for the first time in Bonn, three months with 40 degrees. In my region, a lot of years we have this climate. and in Spain and in Morocco also. So we have to shape our experience. It's very, very important because we are in the front line of climate change. We are in the front line of crisis, but we are also on the front line of solution. And the territorial level, our solution in the territorial level must be implemented. Water management, soil restoration, agroecology, protection of natural areas. We have a lot of solution and local and regional governance, I think, have another advantage. We are able to bring together actors who too often work separately. Companies, civil society, agriculture. We can speak with all actors. And it's very important because the solution depend of our work, common work. And this is why in my view, we have to be heard by the ONU and all the states. Our response is based on integrated approach. And our experience must bring to the international level. Desertification is a global challenge, but its implementation is territorial. So not to be too longer, Our message at the COP17, be clear, local governments do not simply want to be consulted. They want to be recognized as full and equal actors in the fight against climate change, desertification and land degradation. And local governments and their networks, must be fully involved in shaping the final declaration of COP17 and their essential role must be explicitly recognized in it. And our mobilization here in Ulaanbaatar is very important for this COP and also for the other COPs, climate COPs, biodiversity corps and in the end of the year, the UN Conference on Water in Abu Dhabi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Viola, for your intervention. I would now like to give the floor to Mrs. Fiona McClooney, who is the head of section of policy and legislation and global solutions at UN Habitat. Mrs. McClooney, you are representing the United Nations, one of the United Nations agencies, UN Habitat in particular, which is the agency for human settlements. So you look at these issues from an international, from a global perspective, whilst helping and supporting urban areas, human settlements throughout the various countries. Your direct partners, however, are national governments. Most of it, but the beneficiaries are urban areas and cities worldwide. So we heard here from the three representatives of local governments and regional governments that it is needed to be heard at these international fora. That is one point that I would like to ask you. Are we heard here? Are we really heard? And secondly, I think our leader says here, we need to be heard, not just because it's nice to be heard, but we actually can help with solutions. We can come forward with practical with practices that can be shared with other subjects of subnational governments around the world. So my question is really to you, and acknowledging all of the work that UN-Habitat is doing in this field, how do you see the uptake of subnational government work and therefore recognition, but also support to that work in a compound like here, the COP17. Madam, the floor is yours.

Sorry, sorry. Thank you very much for that question. And I'm also delighted to be here on behalf of UN-Habitat, representing our executive director, Ms. Anna Claudia Rosbach. It's a tricky question you've asked me, for sure, because obviously these Conference of the Parties negotiations are Member States, they're Member States, so they're representatives of the national government. What we are seeing here is an increasing lobby organisation from Bonn to now, energy around the need to have regional and local governments represented. But if you think of the numbers of regional and local governments there are in every country, this is going to be a very, it's a practical impossibility for everyone to be there. So these have to be representative organizations that take on a representative role. ICLEI one, ICLG another, other regional representatives of local and regional governments we see in other fora. So I think the practicalities are that there has to be some form of representation There may be maybe the mayor of Ulaanbaatar represents local governments for the whole of Mongolia. But I'm just saying this as a sideline. So but but but so one point is the practicalities of representation, which I think there should be a voice and there should be a space. But it also has to be something that works within the system doesn't. mesh up the bureaucracy. But I think the other issue that's become increasingly noted and recognised is, and you said it at the beginning, cities are impacted. You know, Europe in the summer for the first time, everyone's shocked. You know, my 95 year old mother has her legs like this because they've swollen to balloons. You know, this is everyone is shocked by what has been happening. This is also something that has been happening in the Mediterranean for decades, in Africa for generations. So it's only maybe new to Europe that this is happening now. So cities are impacted and politically very aware, but they're also some part the cause. So we have to also recognize that cities impacts on their rural areas are something that is necessarily making the situation worse, making land degradation worse, making desertification worse. And it's in measuring and addressing those issues that we have the opportunity to change and restore land and restore hope.

Thank you very much, Madam McClooney. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to a first end of direct interventions from our speakers here. We have around 20 minutes for questions from the members of the media and the press who are here. And if you do have questions, please raise your hands. I will take questions one after the other, but please do introduce yourself and perhaps the media that you represent as well. So I open the floor to first questions or remarks from the members of the media, please. Yes, please. Can you speak in the microphone because it is broadcasted? Yeah.

I am representing TV24 from Magoya. So my question is, as you have stated, this is not the first mayor's forum that has been organized. I would like to ask for some specific examples of the outcomes of the previous mayor's forums that have had real world outcomes that have benefited and has been beneficial to the general public other than the national level of the cities or the countries. Yeah, that would be my question. Thank you very much.

Yeah, this is the first. So I can give the floor to any of you, but just to frame again the question. So this mayors forum is the very first in this kind of setting. We have had leaders forums, not necessarily directly with a COP. on desertification. So just to make to clarify that, but if any of our speakers wish to to come in, please do so. I can also add if you want.

We have experience from other large conferences on the inclusion of mayors and mayors organize city organizations for instance with UNF triple C and the CBD we just recently had preparatory conference in Bonn and that is um a very institutionalized process by now and it guarantees that ideas solutions will be fed into the main conference. So I think we can profit from the experience we have from these other fields and introduce that into the desertification cops or any other large conferences that there are out there, UN conferences. Let me just mention the CSW Commission Convention on the Status of Women. So I think that is a template, a blueprint which we can use and that will give us concrete outcomes at some stage.

Yes, please.

Yeah, as I mentioned before, it's a very first like city of May's forum during COP 17 under the topic desertification and land degradation. So the results of the kind of forum. So for instance, for tomorrow, like I've got like over 30 B2B meetings. with all the cities and like sponsorships, international organizations. That kind of meetings will bring lots of chances to cooperate and to implement projects for green development. Yeah.

Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, please.

I'm asking for Mongolian mayor.

So this COP17 for environmental issues, so must have international representation, so specifically youth involvement, how much make sure that people who are youth are there to represent the future of these countries. So in terms of youth, what kind of involvement do you think there should be and in terms of the capital city, what programs are there, can you please talk about this?

So thank you for asking a great question. So the mayoral forum issues that we're talking about are relevant to people of every age. So specifically, international organizational representation means that we share these opportunities with everybody and make sure we learn from the experiences of all these other cities that have gone through these before. So in the 21st century, this year, the city mayoral forum, the biggest advantage of all of this happening in the city is that the land degradation and climate change issues, how do we fix these issues with technological innovations? So we talk about all these issues a lot, but if we're not investing in these, we've had trouble, you know, fixing these issues without investment. So we're having representatives for very many different kinds of people. As I said before, we're doing three projects with World Bank and and the press conference, you know, Chinese technological company, BYD, the Lombard City is going to collaborate with them. And in terms of energy, we're gonna sign an MOU about a project for energy. And so we're discussing our capacities. So as you say, maybe these are all just like grownups meeting, but you know, we're all gonna be, after all of this happens, we're gonna categorize all these projects and think about, you know, who does this affect most, youth or elderly? And so that means that in the context of the city, we'll be able to better implement these projects depending on who it affects the most and connect these projects with like investment partners and companies and support youth in that way. And August 25th, the World Youth Day is happening and as mayor, I want to focus on the quality of life for young people in the city. Specifically, young people, young man in UB, for example, maybe spend 60% of his income on rent and 40% is left over for everything else. And so this is not a great city for young people to live then because of that. And so there must be budget investments, like every cent must be considered for how it could improve a young person's life. And so this 60/40 balance maybe could be shifted to 50/50, 40/60. The world average, you know, balance is 30%, so I'll focus on this.

I hope that satisfied your question. Any more questions from the floor? Yes, please. Use the microphone, yes. And if you can just introduce yourself.

My name is Boyan Barakish, I'm from Euro News, and I have a question for His Excellency, the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar, because you are in a position where Ulaanbaatar is by far the largest urban settlement in the country, and it is easier for Ulaanbaatar to do the networking in this kind of a way in comparison to other smaller settlements across the country um but of course desertification happens in smaller areas but also has in fact effect on ulanator so um to what extent uh do you intend to uh serve as a as a gateway for other uh communities across the country to also do the networking, do you cooperate with them? I saw encouraging sign that in this project of 500 EV chargers, not all 500 are in Ulaanbaatar, there are some being installed otherwise, even though Ulaanbaatar is the initiator of the action. So how will that work? Will that work regionally?

All right thank you you're on news yeah here is a like couple of representatives from regional areas such as like the cities of China even like the Korea Japan like we got really good relation between us So the desertification is like 77% of our land like under the desertification. It's really related to the urban development. I will give you one example in 2000. There was a like a zoot. It said that during the winter we harshing, uh, facing really harsh winter and that is why they're the herders. They lost their livestocks during the that winter in 2000 and after that they're like. all of the most of the herds is just moved to the urban areas in a lamb butter. After this shifting and moving like the lamb butter city facing lots of problems such as air pollution and you know as you like seen before the traffic right? So this is the occasion in the urban development it is really interconnected to to each other. So like it's sort of like our local problem. I just like mentioned how this certification relates to the urban development. So originally, so we got like really famous wind, the name like white wind, it's like created from like Mongolia through the desert in Gobi. And after that it's like going to the Chinese cities and to the Seoul in Korea and after that like, Japanese cities. So that problem is not only like the Ulaanbaatar Mongolian's problem. It's like regional problem. So this city may form like can like given us chance to cooperate to solve and like implement solving that problem projects. So like my My idea is to create a new network to solve the kind of wind and decrease the desertification, like plant trees during the Gobi Desert and other special areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Governor. We have time for last question. Any last questions? Yes, please.

Hello. Hello. Good afternoon. So my name is Inbush, media site. So French representative, I want to ask about taxation in cities. When I was traveling in France, when I went to service places, they had green like you know decoration they had like greenery all around and if they did they received tax benefits and so that's why Paris is so green that's what I heard from our tour guide so Did Paris, can you tell us about the good experiences and lessons learned from that Ulaanbaatar could use in the future about becoming more green using taxation? And then now for the mayor of UB. So the reason that the last mayor of UB resigned was because of the issue with Toul River, because there was going to be a really big development through the river, a highway. And so the last mayor resigned because of this issue. And so internationally, so how will you decide the location of the new drama theater building? Will UB crossing through Tool River again? UB has water issues. How will you make these decisions? I have these two questions.

Governor, you may end up on that question.

Excuse me, in French. I don't know if I understood the question correctly. You were talking about taxes in France in relation to environmental issues, ecology, right?

Yes. What is fiscal autonomy?

Ah, fiscal autonomy. That cities have to be able to developed or accelerated the action? So in France, the local authorities don't have a lot of fiscal autonomy. We don't have a lot of levers. Environmental taxation and especially at the state level. But we can actually put sometimes a certain number of local taxes to fight against pollution. And we have in France what we call the the the the the polluter payers, that is to say those who pollute Je prends un exemple. On a aujourd'hui les pollutions de l'eau par rapport aux ce qu'on appelle les les en France, les polluants éternels. Euh ce sont des des des dérivés euh de production industrielle et And we have to tax these producers because today, ultimately, it's the consumers who pay through the water fee, they're going to pay for the investments. And when there's pollution, well, these investments, it's the consumers who aren't the source of the pollution who are going to pay. Well, we're going to tax these polluters to help la depollution et on a pareil des systemes notamment par rapport au foncier a l'emprise agricole pour eviter l'etaleman urbain lutter contre la degradation des sols la aussi il y a un certain nombre de dispositifs mais je prefer insister sur l'autre volet c'est a dire les actions positives que peuvent mettre en place les collectivités grâce à ces taxes. Par exemple, vous parliez de Paris tout à l'heure, Paris qui est très urbain. Et la question de tout à l'heure qui était posée à Monsieur le Maire sur le lien entre le rural et l'urbain, eh bien là, l'eau va être polluée par des pollutions agricoles. And being the city of Paris, the establishment that takes care of the management of water has put in place a tax against agricultural pollution, but it reverses the product of this tax to the farmers themselves so that they change their practices and that they no longer use pesticides. and that they go towards an agroecology around water catchments to eliminate pollution at the source. So here is an example of a tax that can be put in place, but not a tax simply for a tax to have money, a tax to improve the environment, to support industrialists the farmers to evolve their practices.

Thank you very much, Mr. Viola. Mr. Governor.

So in terms of COP17, thank you for asking important question. The Ulaanbaatar City ecosystem, the most important thing in it is the Tol River and the Amaltan Bridge. I grew up, you know, diving in that river and and so projects or anything that's, you know, against the Tule River that's, you know, detrimental to it, I swear not to do anything to it. So you might not be understanding, the project that you're discussing is just to change the direction of the road. The reason we're having this discussion is because from one side, the order has been made for the project and the Chinese company has already been, already signed to complete this project. And so on one side there's investors and these foreign companies, we need to protect their interests. And so we're doing these discussions for that end. And so Toll River There is no toll river highway. There is already a signed document. What we're discussing right now is this planned budget, how are we going to use it to benefit and to reduce the traffic in Ulaanbaatar and to save time when we travel. And so these discussions are to shift the budget for that into making the traffic in UB better. So Desang Road highest cross. So four roads meet at this center crossway and sort of make traffic worse. And so if we do a bridge road over it, the Desang area traffic will be solved. And second, the Narni Road, Sun Road crossways, There's also an issue there of traffic getting stuck there. If we also do a bridge project there, that'll also be solved. So such as this, there's these other projects and other projects that we can do to solve these issues. And that's what I'm transparently saying to you, that old trust pathway is not going to happen. I'll say it, repeat it again. And as mayor, this ecosystem, including the Tol River, I won't do anything to harm it. And in western UB, Ulaanbaatar does not have an exit road. And so you must have seen before, you know, like during Naadam, people were stuck in traffic for about four hours. And so because we only have one pathway exit in Western UB, so that Western Road Trust, that's what we're discussing right now. That's what I'm saying to you. And so second, the National Drama Theater, there's an issue there. And we will not be constructing a building at the source of our water. And we will be placing it, we will be studying right now. We're doing a study right now about where are these other places where we can place this building, you know, this important marker of our heritage. It's a great project and so I hope that you all receive this with warm hearts. And in terms of land and where it'll be placed, we will not be placing it at the source of any waterways. So that's what we're studying right now. So I'll repeat, the Toll River Highway does not exist.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of this press meeting. I would like to thank the speakers of today and I would like to thank the members of the press for your attention and your questions. The Ulaanbaatar Declaration will be discussed and approved this afternoon. It will be put online and if you wish to access it, please do contact our media group who can provide you more information about the declaration as well as about the Ulaanbaatar initiative that is connected to it. Thank you all very much for now and wishing you a good continuation of your day. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.