Turkiye aspires to global leadership in fight against climate change

ANKARA

Turkiye has to make strong, feasible, and effective decisions to attain regional and global leadership in green development, the country's environment, urbanization and climate change minister said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the first meeting of the Climate Change and Adaptation Coordination Committee in the capital Ankara, Murat Kurum said the last year had been critical for Turkiye for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement and strengthening the country's climate action.

He said the committee had gathered to discuss the fight against climate change and to determine steps to be taken, decisions to be made, and policies to be implemented in line with the net-zero and green development goals.

Saying that climate change is the world's top issue, Kurum said it is not merely an environmental crisis but also an issue of development related to many areas from trade to transportation, industry to food, and energy to education.

Citing the tragic wildfires that took place along Turkey's southern and western coasts last summer, he said 2021 was a year when the fallout from climate change was keenly visible.

"Every individual must urgently make it a routine of their daily lives to protect the environment, to preserve nature," he said. "All of us need to be conscious and volunteering members of Turkiye's mass mobilization in the fight against climate change."

He went on to say that under his ministry's coordination, all institutions, universities, research centers, businesses, and NGOs would produce "extremely constructive and effective solutions" in cooperation.

Kurum said the Climate Council to be held next month would be of great significance for both Turkiye and the world, and online conferences would present exemplary work in the fight against climate change with over 500 participants.

Cutting greenhouse gases and adapting the world will be discussed in detail during the council, he added. The council will also tackle national and international green financing resources, carbon pricing tools, and carbon regulation at the borders, said Kurum.

*Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara