Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing & Resilient Urban Renewal — Ger-District Eco-Districts

Ulaanbaatar's ger districts — unplanned settlements where roughly 840,000 residents live in traditional tents or self-built houses on individually fenced plots — have almost none of the green infrastructure found in the planned city core, and independent academic assessment finds citywide green space at only around 1.8% of area against a 2014 national target of 30% by 2030.

The Asian Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund co-finance the Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing and Resilient Urban Renewal Sector Project (GCF project FP077), approved in 2018, to redevelop roughly 100 hectares of ger-district land into 20 eco-districts of about 5 hectares each with integrated green space.

The USD 570 million project, including a USD 145 million GCF contribution (a USD 95 million loan and a USD 50 million grant) alongside ADB and private co-financing, is delivering an estimated 10,000 low-carbon, climate-resilient affordable housing units together with roads, water, sewerage and district-heating connections.

The GCF appraisal projects around 432,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided and roughly 350,000 people with increased climate resilience over the project's life, running to a planned completion around 2030.

These are ex-ante financier estimates for a programme still under construction, not measured post-completion outcomes, and the same academic literature documenting the green-space shortfall also flags weak inter-agency coordination as a recurring risk to delivery.