Implementation Challenges of Low-Emission Public Transport Policies in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Past studies on low-carbon public transport implementation challenges primarily focused on a specific transport mode to find its viability within broader sustainable urban mobility frameworks. A notable gap still exists in analyzing implementation challenges of low-emission urban public transport policies in the Global South. In particular, research about cities in developing countries, including Mongolia, remains limited. Thus, this study attempts to fill this gap by identifying implementation challenges for low-emission public transport policies in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. We collected and systematically examined the most relevant legal and policy documents from 2008 to 2023, including those from transport agencies and research institutions. The low-emission public transport policies were identified using the principles of the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach. The implementation challenges of identified policies were analyzed using the policy implementation analysis framework developed by Sabatier and Mazmanian. We found that low-emission public transport initiatives that were approved by international organizations and the national government were canceled or significantly delayed due to political instability, financial limitations, and poor inter-agency coordination. This paper also shows that, contrary to some past studies that mainly emphasized financial and administrative capacity limitations, Ulaanbaatar’s low-emission public transport policy implementation met more varied challenges due partly to its unique political, social, and institutional factors as well as unpredictable incidents like the COVID-19 pandemic.