By Climate Scorecard Turkey Country Manager Barış Can Sever One of Turkey’s best practices in renewable energy production is the feed-in tariff system of the Renewable Energy Sources Support Mechanism (YEKDEM). However, while the mechanism aims to accelerate investments in renewable energy production, it contains several controversial aspects in its approach and implementation. Before revealing...
Policy Recommendation 1: Current Incentives and Plans for Coal-Based Power Plants Should be Decreased and Eventually Abandoned Policy Recommendation 2: The Production and Use of renewable Energy Should be Supported The energy sector is responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Turkey. Given that many of Turkey’s emissions stem from the...
Since 1990, Turkey’s electricity consumption has steadily increased with period decreases in 2001 and 2010. The country consumed 50.13 Terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 1990 and 272.53 TWh in 2018. This thirty-year trend represents a 443.65% increase in electricity consumption throughout Turkey. From largest to smallest share in Gigawatt hours (GWh), Turkey’s electricity sources...
Recently Reported Greenhouse Gas Emissions Levels: 374.13 Megatons in 2018, a 190.56% increase over 1990 levels (Source: IEA) Current greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in Turkey have been exacerbated by emissions from coal, oil, and gas industries (161.0 Mt, 115 Mt, and 93 Mt respectively). GHG emissions are mainly composed of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide...
In the 2012 Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference, sectors closely related to environmental sustainability are listed as agriculture, forestry, fishing, renewable energy, resource intensive production, recycling, construction and transportation. Turkey’s presentation at this Conference introduced its approach to green jobs. It identified the following sectors for creating green jobs: power generation from waste heat, water and...
The concept of climate justice is quite new to social movements in Turkey. There are many demographic segments in the country that are vulnerable and are affected by ecological destruction and the climate crisis. These vulnerable communities also take longer and are more difficult to recover from environmental damages. For example, in the most recent...
COVID-19 has had worldwide consequences, both as an outbreak and in terms of the globalized world economy. According to the World Bank, the global economy will shrink by 5% and GDP per capita by 6.2% due to the pandemic. For Turkey, which is already in an economic crisis, the situation is even more critical. According...
Turkey’s current or planned health and economic recovery policies for addressing COVID-19 are not taking into account issues related to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation. However, there is a very important climate-related issue that Turkey should consider as part of its COVID-19 economic recovery program: the return to self-sustaining agricultural production. Doing so would completely...
Turkey’s demand for energy and natural resources is increasing day by day due to economic growth and population growth. Turkey shows the highest annual growth rate among OECD countries. Reliance on imports accounts for 3 out of 4 units of Turkey’s total primary energy supply. Unquestionably, Turkey’s top policy priority has been to secure its...
Turkey does not currently mandate a carbon pricing policy. However, projects for the Voluntary Carbon Market, established within the framework of the principle of environmental and social responsibility, have been developed and implemented for a long time. A Voluntary Carbon Market is a market created to facilitate the voluntary reduction and balancing of greenhouse gas...
