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Istanbul, Turkey – “They don’t care about the environment, they care about money, and it’s always money,” said Nurcan Keskin, a retired teacher who is taking a break to collect signatures for the petition to save what Turkish climate activists say is a rare green space with 1,600 A prosperous metropolis with a population of 10,000.
The 354,000 square meters (423,000 square yards) Validebag Grove is home to birds and other wild animals and is a legally protected space. Its trees are part of the urban lungs and absorb greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
This is another fuse that seems to be constantly fighting between the Turkish government and environmental activists.
For more than 100 days, Keskin and dozens of other activists have been monitoring bulldozers and police. They want to enter the woods and start construction to transform it into a “people’s garden”-this is a national plan that the government said it will implement a part of. Make tens of thousands of green spaces easier for the public to use.
However, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition against the development, which includes paved trails and the construction of a 500-car parking lot.
“They made this point as if they wanted to serve people. But that is not the case,” said another activist in the jungle, Arif Belgin. “They demolished the green space so that buildings can be built. This is a nature reserve, but the country is unwilling to protect it, so we come to protect it.”
‘Turning point’
For a long time, environmental radicalism has been an explosive fault line in a politically polarized Turkey. The plan to replace Istanbul’s central park in 2013 triggered massive protests and led to the arrest of hundreds of activists.
Despite opposition from activists, the authorities continued to build a new northern highway and the world’s largest airport near Istanbul, replacing forests that were supposed to be protected as part of the city’s development plan.
In 2019, thousands of protesters marched against a gold mining project in Canakkale Province in western Canada, which activists said had cut down hundreds of thousands of trees. Although environmentalists say this will cut off the city’s important green reserve, there are still plans to dig a 45-kilometer (28-mile) long alternative to the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
But in recent weeks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has often accused environmental activists of hindering the country’s economic development, said that what the government is saying is to change priorities.
This month, Turkey plans to fully approve Paris Agreement Climate change aims to limit global greenhouse gas emissions to levels that keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) below pre-industrial levels.
Turkish officials stated that by 2030, they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 21% below the expected level. By 2053, they plan to reach Net zero emissions, Which means that green spaces and other natural carbon sinks will absorb all the greenhouse gases emitted by the country.
Turkey’s plan is approved Before COP26, The United Nations will hold an important meeting on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland in November.
Turkish Minister of Environment and Urban Planning Murat Kurum told reporters on Monday that his country will set up a “climate committee” next year to bring together stakeholders and experts from various economic sectors and plan how to achieve net zero emissions.
“We are increasing our water tank area. We are increasing our nature reserves, expanding our bike paths and green walking paths,” Kurum said.
Environmentalists in Turkey worry that it is the obvious contradiction in the transmission of information-claiming to protect green space on the global stage, but promoting projects such as the People’s Garden in cities such as Istanbul.
“As climate activists, we have been requesting the approval of the Paris Agreement in Turkey for many years, so Erdogan’s statement is an important achievement,” Emina Ozcan, a co-speaker of the Turkish Green Party, told Al Jazeera .
“This is a turning point in the climate movement, but we are discussing what will happen after this.”
Geopolitical wind changes
Turkey was one of the first countries to sign the Paris Agreement in 2015, but in the following years, Ankara insisted that only by including it among other “developing countries” can it be fully approved. Classification will make it eligible for funding from rich countries. Countries achieve their climate change goals.
“The Turkish delegation has submitted requests almost every year after 2015,” said Umit Sahin, climate change research coordinator at the Istanbul Policy Center of Sabanci University. “But of course, this is impossible because the decision should be made unanimously, and developing countries are different from Turkey. They don’t want Turkey to become another developing country, mainly because of climate finance.”
Karim Elgendy, an associate researcher at the Chatham Institute and the founder of Carboun, said that Ankara’s opposition to being excluded from financial support is justified. Advocacy plan for sustainable development.
Ergendi said that Turkey’s economy is one of the largest in the world and has a place in organizations such as the G20, but its per capita emissions are lower than the global average. According to the Global Carbon Atlas, Turkey’s emissions rank 16th in the world, accounting for about 1% of global greenhouse gases.
Turkey’s record of reducing emissions is much better than that of other countries in the Middle East.
“If you think that Turkey is comparable to Germany in terms of technology availability, capital availability, and historical responsibility for carbon emissions, then you can certainly say that Turkey has not done enough to reduce emissions,” Ergendi said.
“But if you think Turkey is closer to a developing economy, you might ask why it is required to bear the burden of historical emissions without anyone supporting it.”
Floods, fires and droughts
Shahin said that part of the reason why Turkey is now ratifying the Paris agreement is to realize that it will not be reclassified as a developing country anytime soon. But Shaheen added that there are more practical reasons.
First of all, one year of floods, fires and droughts has made climate change the focus of political discussions in Turkey.
A Konda survey found that 76% of voters believe that natural disasters have become more frequent, and 87% of voters (including the ruling Justice and Development Party or 81% of the AK Party) believe that global warming is a real phenomenon.
The survey found that overall, 75% of voters in Turkey are concerned about climate change-this level of awareness matches that of most European countries, and in many cases exceeds that of most European countries.
Today, approximately 34% of Turkey’s energy comes from coal, and the country is second only to China and India in the global ranking of newly planned coal-fired power plants [File: Ozan Kose/AFP]The rise of renewable energy
At the same time, the global shift to coal means that Turkey is rapidly replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy to meet its energy needs, which account for the vast majority of the country’s emissions.
According to a report by Ember, a climate and energy think tank, currently about 34% of Turkey’s energy comes from coal. In the ranking of newly planned coal-fired power plants in the world, the country is second only to China and India.But these new factories are likely to be cancelled because Major coal financing countries such as China It has been stated that they will not continue to support fossil fuels.
On the contrary, renewable energy has stepped in, and now about half of the country’s energy comes from sources such as water, solar, and wind.
Elgendy said that Turkey’s transition to renewable energy is commendable, but if it intends to achieve the 2053 net zero target, the country needs to propose overall policy changes and detailed action plans. “The announcement of complete decarbonization is great, but we don’t know how they will achieve this goal.”
Elgendy said that in particular, the country’s energy policy has repeatedly emphasized “energy security and energy independence” rather than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Although its share has declined in recent years, oil and natural gas still account for about a quarter of the country’s energy structure.Turkey is locked Eastern Mediterranean dispute Fighting with Greece and Cyprus for gas rights there is a high-risk naval standoff. A real war may break out, possibly involving Egypt, Israel, and other countries in the region.
Koray Dogan Urbarli of the Turkish Green Party said that this is just one of the obvious contradictions between Turkey’s global proposition to address climate change and its domestic policies.
He said that government officials touted green policies in their speeches, but they “don’t know what changes are needed to do this.” [and] What are the consequences of these changes. These are just slogans for them. “
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