Excellency Mr. Purevdagva, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar,

Distinguished Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD,

Honorable Mayors, UN Colleagues and Partners

It is a pleasure to join you for this Forum.

And it is a delight for me personally to be back in Ulaanbaatar – a city I called home during my four years as UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator here.

We often think of land degradation as a rural issue, but what happens to land, water and ecosystems outside city boundaries directly affects cities.

UB exemplifies this. The pressures on water, urban housing, infrastructure and public services as well as high winter air pollution are exacerbated by migration into the city. This in turn is the result of Mongolia’s rapid land degradation with 77% of its grasslands already degraded - threatening nomadic livelihoods.

On other hand, how cities expand, zone land, manage water and waste, build infrastructure and protect green and blue spaces can either accelerate degradation or help reverse it.

This two-way relationship between urban development and land resilience is exactly why this “Mayors’ Forum” at COP17 matters. 

Our region accounts for 54% of the world’s urban population and will grow to over 3.3 billion people by 2050. Cities drive 80% of regional GDP. Decisions taken by city governments today will shape not only urban growth, but also future patterns of land use, resource consumption, resilience, and inequality across the region. 

From UNDP’s perspective, our support to countries and cities is focused on three key priorities to inform practical urban action.

First — putting risk-informed & nature-positive land planning at the core of urban governance systems

Resilient urban development cannot be achieved through isolated environmental projects. It must be addressed through the systems that determine how cities grow: namely spatial and land-use planning, municipal budgets, infrastructure investments, and service delivery. 

This requires an integrated approach that connects environmental action with inclusive urban planning.

It also means recognizing urban, peri-urban, and rural linkages. Cities depend on surrounding landscapes for water, food, ecosystem services, and livelihoods. Protecting those systems should be part of urban policy, not an issue left outside the city boundary. 

Second — treating nature-based solutions as critical infrastructure

Urban forests, wetlands, and other nature-based solutions help reduce flood and heat risk, improve water quality, protect biodiversity, and create healthier public spaces. These solutions work best when they are designed as part of urban infrastructure— alongside, and where possible instead of conventional grey infrastructure. 

For mayors, the question is not whether cities should become greener but how nature-based solutions can solve concrete urban problems.  

Returning nature to our cities also means putting people at the centre of decision-making. The communities most exposed to heat, floods, pollution, water scarcity, and insecure tenure are often those with the least influence over planning decisions.

Through tools such as our “Transforming Urban Futures in Asia and Pacific” strategy, UNDP is working with cities in India, Nepal and the Philippines to bring their lived experiences into urban planning. Third — moving from pilots to implementation at scale 

Cities do not lack ideas. The persistent gap is in implementation and financing. Nature-positive urban development will not scale, if it remains a collection of small pilots outside city budgets and capital investment plans. 

UNDP sees finance as part of urban governance. That means helping cities translate plans into bankable pipelines and investments, strengthen municipal financial management, combine public and private resources, and use blended finance, green bond instruments and public-private partnerships.

Here in Mongolia, this approach is already in motion. This April, UNDP, the Government of Mongolia and the GEF launched a Green and Inclusive Cities Initiative. It is designed to integrate climate action, biodiversity conservation, and social inclusion into urban development, spatial planning and municipal budgeting, while strengthening municipal access to innovative financing instruments.

This is the kind of integrated model we want to learn from and scale. 

Moving forward, this Forum is rightly focused on concrete outcomes: the Ulaanbaatar Declaration, city-to-city partnerships, technical and financial cooperation and a stronger voice for local governments within the UNCCD process.

But ultimately, success will not be the number of good examples we exchange. It will be measured by what changes in city plans, investment decisions and the way urban growth protects — rather than depletes — the land and water systems on which our cities depend. 

Let me close by thanking our partners, particularly the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar city, for organizing this important forum.

UNDP stands ready to partner with national, local governments, and all partners to pioneer future ready-urban governance that integrates climate resilience, nature, finance and innovation and connects policy with local action! Thank you. Bayarlalaa.