This report summarises analyses on the implication of the Paris Agreement’s temperature limit for the Mongolian electricity supply sector, which suggests that emissions need to decrease by 60 to 100 percent up to 2050 compared to 2015 levels, driven by an accelerated uptake of renewable technologies. It also considers the health impacts associated with air pollution from coal power plants. The analysis shows that the continued operation of coal-fired power plants could cause almost 1,600 premature deaths / 42,000 years of life lost in Mongolia between 2020 and 2050. Around 70 percent of these will be caused by power plants not yet in operation but included in the coal capacity expansion plans as of January 2020. The negative impacts caused by existing and future coal power plants illustrate the importance of integrating considerations on health and other socio-economic impacts into Mongolia’s future energy sector planning.
The report concludes by identifying several actionable next steps to accelerate mitigation ambition in the future, such as the implementation of pilot projects for renewable-based heating to decouple heat and electricity supply, the improvement of electricity transmission network and grid operation capacities for integration of (variable) renewables, and further development of national research, planning, and training capacities for renewable energy development.