SEEDS Asia English website

On 6th August, a series of lecture sessions was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as part of “Japan-Mongolia Student Forum: We can change ourselves and our future. Let’s co-think Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)!”, one of which, entitled “Disaster Risk Reduction and SDGs,” was delivered by SEEDS Asia’s Executive Director Mitsuko Otsuyama.

The Forum is taking place to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Mongolia and Japan. It is aimed that, through discussions and co-learning, youth from both Mongolia and Japan will think about promoting mutual understanding and a common future, and plan action. In addition to the lecture series, there will be another phase in September where the participating students will stay together physically, experience culture, and plan action through thematic workshops.

In her lecture, Otsuyama shared a common challenge of the two countries: hazards are getting more severe due to climate change. For example, in Japan, the number of times of rainfall that exceeds 50mm/hr is substantially increasing, while in Mongolia, people are experiencing more “Dzuds” where severe snowfalls, cold waves, and storms occur, resulting in scarcity of water and feed crops than ever before. Dzuds kills a great number of livestock animals, when local people are unable to continue their traditional nomadic lifestyle and become ‘environmental refugees.’ Further to this, legal changes concerning land use and ownership under democratization in the 1990s pushed a large population into Ulaanbaatar.

Excessive population concentration in urban cities which often degrades the environment is a worldwide challenge. Some of the unique reasons why environmental enhancement is particularly difficult in Mongolia are: the average temperature in January could reach as low as -24.6 degrees Celsius and locally mined low-cost coal is used as fuel for heaters; and Ulaanbaatar’s location in a large basin in the highland of average 1,580 meters, where the atmosphere (and pollutants) get stranded. Burning fossils including coal produces greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, SOX and NOX, particular matters and mercury, which are all air pollutants.

In 2018, UNICEF released research on the impact of Mongolia’s air pollution on children which revealed that air pollution in Ulaanbaatar in winter is 133 times worse than the international standard, and the second largest cause of children’s deaths below five years old is pneumonia (over 400 cases per year). There are various barriers in the manufacturing, transport, economy and education sectors that make the transition from coal to cheap and clean alternative energy slow. Mongolia’s social security, on the other hand, is not appropriately tuned to its newly introduced market economy, and medical services are not sufficient due to a lack of hospitals and doctors even in its capital city. This social vulnerability indeed exacerbates the damage and impacts of air pollution.

In order to reduce disaster risk (air pollution impacting the health of people in Mongolia), it is essential to ensure the reduction of social vulnerability (insufficient social safety nets and health services) in a way that solves social challenges, and builds response capacity. When looking around to find out what is going on around oneself, and having active discussions with others who share the space of daily life and learning, one may be able to identify and address issues to be tackled. These issues may be tackled on one’s own, with friends and family, or through collaborative efforts with a third person.

With climate change, hazards are progressively getting more severe and more frequent, thus reinforcing infrastructure is not an sufficient or effective measure anymore. Rather, knowing how to protect ourselves in disaster situations and addressing social challenges are more important. Therefore, to answer the question “What intensifies a disaster’s impacts?,” we need to solve one problem at a time, and make everyday lifestyle choices with a longer-term and comprehensive perspective. This is also highly relevant to achieving SDGs.

We humbly hope that this forum has enabled the participants to go beyond “I don’t care about the future, I don’t care about other people” through building bridges of a network for the participating youth to engage in the future of the globe.

———————————————————————–

It was in 1972 when Mongolia and Japan established their diplomatic relations. It is also the year when the court ruling in favor of the patients of “Yokkaichi asthma” was handed down. The disease is one of the four big pollution diseases in Japan, and the enactments of the Act on Compensation for Pollution-related Health Damage and Nature Conservation Act took place in the same year. We have before us, people who have shed tears, suffered, been discriminated against, yet hoped that their future was changeable, and fought against injustice risking their lives. Remembering how people in Japan contaminated their land, air and water, it is a true blessing that we can now enjoy clean air and drinkable water and to live a fruitful life. These can never be taken for granted.