Episode
Mongolia's Energy Security - Telmen Altanshagai | 2025 Episode 23
- Podcast
- The IR thinker
- Published
- Oct 22, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3399
- Processing state
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Summary
This episode of The IR thinker explores Mongolia’s evolving energy landscape with policy analyst Telmen Altanshagai, focusing on how a landlocked state navigates dependence, diversification and development. The conversation maps Mongolia’s current energy mix and security challenges, from coal reliance, heating and grid issues in Ulaanbaatar to infrastructure gaps in rural areas, before turning to governance structures and policy coordination. We examine the strategic implications of projects such as the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline and India’s investment in Mongolia’s first oil refinery, alongside China’s expanding role and the prospects for regional connectivity through concepts like the East Asian Power Grid. The episode also considers energy poverty and inequality, the impact of climate change, constraints posed by national debt, and what policy priorities a Mongolian prime minister should pursue to strengthen energy security and harness the global energy transition for long-term, broad-based development. Telmen Altanshagai Telmen Altanshagai is a Washington, D.C.–based independent policy analyst and Energy and Climate Intern at Observer Research Foundation America, as well as a Fellow at the Global Policy Institute. Her work focuses on energy security and development economics across the Global South, with particular expertise on Mongolia, where she analyses how shifting global energy systems affect economic stability and long-term development trajectories. Publications: Mongolia’s Gas Pipeline Diversification Comes With Risk Mongolia seeks new markets in Eurasia Mongolia’s Precarious Energy Security Content 00:00 – Introduction 01:31 – Overview of Mongolia’s Energy Mix and Security Landscape 04:13 – Pathways for Energy Diversification 07:08 –…