WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Biden administration has ordered U.S. government agencies to immediately stop financing new carbon-intensive fossil fuel projects overseas and prioritize global collaborations to deploy clean energy technology, according to U.S. diplomatic cables.

The cables, seen by Reuters, say U.S. government engagements should reflect the goals set in an executive order issued at the start of the year aimed at ending American financial support of coal and carbon-intensive energy projects overseas.

"The goal of the policy ... is to ensure that the vast majority of U.S. international energy engagements promote clean energy, advance innovative technologies, boost U.S. cleantech competitiveness, and support net-zero transitions, except in rare cases where there are compelling national security, geostrategic, or development/energy access benefits and no viable lower carbon alternatives accomplish the same goals," a cable said.

The announcement was first reported by Bloomberg.

The policy defines "carbon-intensive” international energy engagements as projects whose greenhouse gas intensity is above a threshold lifecycle value of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour and includes coal, gas or oil.

The policy bans any U.S. government financing of overseas coal projects that do not capture or only partially capture carbon emissions, allowing federal agencies to engage on coal generation only if the project demonstrates full emissions capture or is part of an accelerated phaseout.

It exempts carbon-intensive projects for two reasons: they are deemed to be needed for national security or geostrategic reasons or they are crucial to deliver energy access to vulnerable areas.

The policy formalizes the goals set by the administration in earlier executive orders and policy guidances and reiterated in multilateral forums such as the G7 meeting in France in August and U.N. climate summit in the fall.

At the U.N. climate talks in Scotland, the Biden administration pledged with 40 countries and five financial institutions to end new international finance for unabated fossil fuel energy by the end of 2022, except in limited cases.

"The administration has elevated climate change as a core tenet of its foreign policy," a State Department spokesperson said on Friday in response to a request for comment on the cables. The commitment made in Scotland "will reorient tens of billions of dollars of public finance and trillions of private finance towards low-carbon priorities, " the spokesperson said.

“This policy is full of exemptions and loopholes that lack clarity, and could render these restrictions on fossil fuel financing completely meaningless," said Kate DeAngelis, a climate finance expert at Friends of the Earth.

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) and Canadian junior Star Diamond (TSX: DIAM) have reached an agreement to end a drawn out dispute over the development of a joint diamond project in the province of Saskatchewan.

The legal row stemmed from a 2017 earn-in deal under which Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC), committed to spend $75 million in phases to acquire 60% of the Star-Orion South diamond project.

When RTEC exercised all its options simultaneously, Star Diamonds objected, alleging the the world’s second-largest miner did so to boost its stake at below market value.

The main change to the terms of their original joint venture agreement is that RTEC will eventually own 75% of the project, with Star Diamond holding the remaining 25% interest.

Shares in the Canadian diamond junior jumped 58% on the news on Friday to C$0.36, the highest they have traded this year. That puts the company’s market capitalization at C$138.25 million (about $109m).

As part of the intended changes, the parties agreed that all expenses on the project prior to December 31, 2021 will be the sole responsibility of RTEC.

Investments next year before the announcement of a decision on whether or not to build a diamond operation, to be made after completing a feasibility study, will initially be advanced by RTEC.

66 million carats on the line

Star Diamond will not be required to begin reimbursing RTEC for its share of the costs unless and until commercial production has been achieved, the parties said.

Should the junior enter into an agreement to sell more than 50% of its shares to a third party, RTEC will have five business days to match such an acquisition proposal.

Once the decision to develop a mine on the Fort à la Corne property in Saskatchewan has been made and announced, Star Diamond will have six months to begin contributing to the joint venture.

A 2018 preliminary economic assessment estimated 66 million carats could be recovered from the project over a 38-year period, generating $C3.3 billion ($2.6 billion) in revenue.

Located 60 km east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan’s third largest city, Star-Orion is known to host larger stones, including high-value Type IIa diamonds.

Updating the list of countries that are highly affected by the COVID-19 disease, the German authorities have announced that five countries will be removed from the high-risk list on Sunday, December 12.

The new update of lists has been published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which is Germany’s responsible body for disease prevention and control. According to the announcement, the following countries will no longer be part of the high-risk list:

Armenia

Iran

Mongolia

The Philippines

Romania

Based on the current entry rules that Germany has, the decision means that starting from December 12, vaccinated and recovered travellers who reach Germany from one of the countries mentioned above will be required to follow less stringent entry rules, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Travellers from Armenia, Iran, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Romania, who have been fully vaccinated or recovered from the COVID-19 disease will no longer have to register their entry before travelling to Germany.

Moreover, travellers from these countries will also be released from the quarantine requirement.

On the other hand, strict entry rules will continue to apply to unvaccinated and unrecovered travellers who reach Germany from one of the countries that are to be removed from the high-risk list. They can enter Germany only for absolutely essential purposes provided that they follow entry rules, such as testing and quarantine requirements.

In regards to Germany’s high-risk list, no new countries have been added to it. Still, the list currently includes Switzerland, Poland, Liechtenstein and several other EU/Schengen Area countries such as Croatia, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, and Hungary.

All travellers from a high-risk area need to fill in a digital entry form. Moreover, those who haven’t been vaccinated or recovered from the virus must stay self-isolated for ten days upon their arrival in Germany.

“Travellers who have previously stayed in a high-risk area must have a test, vaccination or recovery certificate with them and, in the event that a carrier is used, present the proof for the purpose of the transport,” the authorities explained.

Similar to the high-risk list, Germany’s virus variant areas list has also remained unchanged. Currently, the virus variant list includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

Previously, the German leaders agreed to impose stricter restrictions in order to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 and its new variant. Since December 2 all persons who haven’t been vaccinated or recovered from the virus are refused access to several indoor places.

In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolia stood out as a “positive outlier” thanks to its vaccine diplomacy skills, which saw Ulaanbaatar obtain vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer from partners around the world. Mongolia’s multi-pillar foreign policy and diplomatic efforts were the key to its vaccine success at a time when many developing countries faced severe shortages.

Still, in the summer of 2021, Mongolia experienced its highest infection spike to date, rising sharply from a few hundred daily cases in May to a peak of nearly 4,000 daily cases in September, leading to 2,023 deaths.

Nevertheless, thanks to relentless efforts made by Mongolia’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Health and the assistance from China, Russia, and third neighbor countries, Mongolia has managed to turn the tides of the pandemic yet again.

In the summer of 2021, despite Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai’s optimism, the number of daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases and death rose sharply, receiving criticism from all sides of the political and social spectrum. However, the latest figures give hope that the country has ridden out the storm, while still having a stockpile of vaccines to be administered. That has allowed Mongolia to push ahead with third doses or “booster shots.”

Bolortuya Chuluunbaatar, the press secretary of the prime minister’s office, said in a tweet on December 6 that 23 percent of the total population, or 39 percent of adults, had received a third dose of vaccine. Zavkhan province is leading in vaccination numbers, with 49 percent of adults already vaccinated with a booster. Bolortuya added that 56.6 percent of the people who have received the booster are elderly, aged between 70-74.

Urug, a Mongolian independent media outlet, reported that 74.9 percent of the population in Ulaanbaatar had been fully vaccinated, and 37.4 had received a third dose. Overall, 91 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated, making the landlocked country one of the most vaccinated nations in the world.

Mongolia’s pandemic management efforts were helped by the Mongolian government’s securing more than 2.5 million doses of booster shots of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine through the COVAX initiative, with a grant from Japan. Moreover, in August, “Japan has signed an agreement with Mongolia to extend 883 million yen ($8 million) in grant aid to help the country fight the coronavirus pandemic.” The grant specifically went toward providing cold chain equipment to keep vaccines at the proper temperatures.

While Mongolia has been active in the regional fight against COVID-19, other countries have also noticed Mongolia’s success in vaccinating both urban and rural populations. On December 2, Advisor to the Health Ministry Batbayar Ochirbat was interviewed by CNBC, and the U.S. television network recognized Mongolia’s astonishing success in bringing numbers down while receiving vaccinations and boosters. He stated, “Mongolia started with administering anti-viral early on under an organized action. We’re confident that Mongolia will get more COVID vaccines if needed. So far, we have a stockpiles of 7.7 million vaccinations.”

Moving forward, the government announced its preparations for the “New Revival Policy,” which aims to reinvigorate and diversify Mongolia’s economy, bolster export-oriented development projects, and increase foreign and domestic investment by creating a more favorable business environment.

In pursuit of diversifying its economy, the Business Council of Mongolia hosted the COP26 Implications on Business and Investment Forum, which include panelists such as Axelle Nicaise, ambassador and the head of the European Delegation to Mongolia; Catherine Ivkoff, Canada’s ambassador to Mongolia;, Philip Malone, the U.K. ambassador to Mongolia; Sebastien Surun, France’s ambassador to Mongolia; and Gregory May, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar.

Given recent climate pledges made at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, with signals a global shift away from coal, it is paramount for Mongolia to highlight the changing investment climate. Mongolia’s change-in-gear can be viewed as an opportunity for foreign investors, but it is also a necessity for the country to shift toward truly diversifying the national economy, embracing green energy and sustainable development projects.

While all these dynamics are mentioned in Mongolia’s long-term development strategy, Vision 2050, Oyun-Erdene and his government must find a tangible roadmap to achieve these goals and improve the country’s investment environment. In the short term, Mongolia – like many other countries – must also find a solution to extreme price hikes for groceries and fuel. Moreover, as a significant recovery measurement, the Ministry of Finance rolled out the most extensive stimulus package yet, worth 10 trillion Mongolian tugrik ($3.5 billion) or a quarter of the country’s GDP.

GUEST AUTHOR

Bolor Lkhaajav

Bolor Lkhaajav is a researcher specializing in Mongolia, China, Russia, Japan, East Asia, and the Americas. She holds an M.A. in Asia-Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco.

Mongolia acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 10 December 2021, becoming the 57th state party. In a speech to the national parliament in October, the Mongolian foreign minister, Battsetseg Batmunkh, said that joining this landmark treaty would “meet the fundamental interests of national security”.

With Russia located to its north and China to its south, Mongolia is surrounded by nuclear-armed states and has long stressed the need for greater action on disarmament. In 1992, it formally declared itself a single-state nuclear-weapon-free zone.

In an address to the UN General Assembly this September, Mongolia said that the TPNW’s entry into force “set a milestone in the international efforts in banning these disastrous weapons”. It added that the treaty will be “instrumental” in eliminating nuclear weapons.

Mongolia has actively promoted universal adherence to the TPNW, including by co-sponsoring and consistently voting in favour of an annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”. In 2017, Mongolia participated in the TPNW’s negotiation at the United Nations and was among 122 states that voted for its adoption.

In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, it expressed hope that the treaty-making process would “establish a strong, robust but effective legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. Following the treaty’s adoption, the then-minister of foreign affairs of Mongolia, Tsend Munkh-Orgil, welcomed the new agreement, noting that “current tensions have only deepened the concern associated with nuclear weapons”.

The effects of climate change are currently being observed in Mongolia as the summer ice loss harms the health of domestic reindeer and pastures become less viable.

The National Museum of Mongolia and partners are working to identify and preserve ancient materials that are emerging from the melting ice in Mongolia. These materials have given historians much insight into how people, specifically ancient Mongolians, have lived in the past.

According to news sources, one of the first discoveries to emerge from a melted glacier was a finely woven piece of animal hair rope. Archaeologists believe this to be from a bridle or a harness, and its condition made it appear as if it had just been dropped in the ice the day before. However, after a thorough evaluation, archaeologists found that it was over 1,500 years old. This finding revealed things about the lifestyle of ancient Mongolian people, such as their herding practices.

In addition to the bridle or harness piece that was found, archaeologists are finding skeletal remains of many animals that do not even exist anymore. Among these remains are argali sheep, spanning a period of more than three millennia.

Hunting artifacts were found with these skeletal remains which reveals a vital piece of information about the lives of ancient Mongolians: they were not just herders, but also hunters.

As stated on The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization, “these finds demonstrate that big game hunting on mountain ice has been an essential part of pastoral subsistence and culture in the Altai Mountains for thousands of years.”

(Merciad)

Researchers highlighted that it has become necessary to restore historical buildings during a discussion held on December 8.

The Choijin Lama Temple Museum organized a discussion under the topic, ‘Current state of restoration for historical buildings, and its future’ at the Museum of Chinggis Khaan in aims of accelerating the studies being carried out on restoring historical buildings, discussing the policies implemented on the buildings’ restoration and making an assessment, and promoting historical heritage and its current state.

As historical buildings are a form of cultural heritage representing the corresponding period in history, officials highlighted the importance of conserving the original state of such structures as well as their restoration in order to pass them on to future generations.

Director of the National Center for Cultural Heritage G.Enkhbat said, “Mongolia had an organization that was established in the 1970s, solely in charge of restoring historical buildings. With sufficient equipment, the organization properly set up plans for when to make the necessary repairs for certain buildings. However, the organization was abolished during the 1990s due to privatization. Since then, private entities have been in charge of the works. A list of historical buildings that require restoration works have been recently made. While there are 140-150 buildings in Ulaanbaatar alone, there are some 1,000 historical monuments alongside temples and monasteries nationwide. We are currently receiving suggestions from corresponding organizations about strengthening and repairs in sections. Works are planned to be initially carried out for 3-4 buildings such as the Choijin Lama Temple Museum and the Bogd Khaan Palace Museum in 2022, of which the necessary financing will be allocated from the state budget.”

During the discussion, the participants discussed various topics such as the current state of conservation and protection of historical buildings, practices implemented internationally for building restoration, necessity of architects and restoration specialists, disaster protection, and the legal framework for restoration works.

The discussion was attended by specialists of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development, representatives of museums, temples and monasteries with such buildings, researchers and scholars, and representatives of NGOs.

The Ministry of Health reported today that 338 СOVID-19 infections and three deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. In detail, 213 cases were reported in Ulaanbaatar city, with 124 cases in 21 provinces and one imported case.

Today, the cumulative infection tally in Mongolia has increased to 385,814, with the death toll to 1,953. Currently, 3,898 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 whilst 7,301 people with mild symptoms are being treated at home.

The coverage of 1st dose has reached 69.5 percent (2,262,343), 2nd dose – 66.2 percent (2,155,006) and 3rd dose or a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccines – 24.0 percent (776,437) of the total population.

Ulaanbaatar (December 8, 2021) The Millennium Challenge Account, Mongolia (MCA-Mongolia) and the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) held a public event to introduce MCC’s updated Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Policy.

On October 18, 2021, MCC approved an updated version of its Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Policy. The C-TIP policy guides the efforts of MCA-Mongolia and its contractors to ensure zero tolerance for trafficking in persons in the MCC-Mongolia Water Compact, from project design to construction. In less than three decades, the population of Ulaanbaatar has nearly tripled in size; however, the water supply has remained the same, creating the conditions for a severe water crisis. The MCC-Mongolia Water Compact will build the critical infrastructure necessary to sustain this limited natural resource, positively impacting more than 55 percent of Mongolia’s population.

The updated MCC C-TIP policy specifically references both sex trafficking and forced labor, and it makes C-TIP Minimum Compliance Requirements a central part of the policy. “We expect the C-TIP Minimum Compliance Requirements to have positive impact on our enforcement efforts by clearly spelling out what all actors in MCC-funded programs must do,” explained Fatema Z. Sumar, MCC’s Vice President for the Department of Compact Operation.

“This policy also fits into a U.S. Government-wide effort aimed at countering trafficking in persons,” explained Gregory May, the U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, and “it reinforces the Government of Mongolia’s anti-trafficking efforts.” The State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report states that, “the Government of Mongolia demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period.”

The Millennium Challenge Corporation is an international development agency of the U.S. Government, working to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Created in 2004, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.