Turkey was ranked 56th among 63 countries in the 2024 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).
According to the index, Turkey dropped nine ranks since last year and received a medium ranking in the Renewable Energy category, low in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions category and Energy use and very low in Climate Policy.
Turkey still depends heavily on fossil fuels for energy. It has no fossil fuel phase-out policy and is still conducting gas and oil exploration in various regions. It also continues to subsidize fossil fuels.
The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources published a National Energy Plan in January 2023. This plan projected high levels of renewable capacity, particularly solar. And while it envisions a gradual reduction in the share of fossil fuels in electricity generation, the CCPI experts criticized it for including expanded nuclear power.
Experts said the government’s targets for wind energy were not ambitious and that the plan did not include a coal phase-out.
CCPI experts reported that Turkey’s agricultural and forestry sectors suffered from a lack of protective legislation. Furthermore, current forestry policy treated forests as production areas rather than as natural assets to be protected. The growing timber industry has led to a huge increase in deforestation, even in protected areas such as national parks. This posed a major threat to carbon sinks ?????.
The experts offer several policy recommendations such as adopting a coal phase-out policy. Moreover, coal subsidies should be transferred to a renewable energy support scheme. Policy instruments for decarbonization of all sectors should be introduced.
The experts suggest mandating installation of solar panels on the roofs of public service infrastructure, automobile parking and open marketplaces. Energy cooperatives should also be regulated to make it easier to set up and maintain them, with fewer legal burdens and obstacles.
The experts also called for the proportion of protected land and marine areas to be increased to at least 30 percent by 2030, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity framework was signed by more than 190 countries in December 2022 to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
In October 2021 Turkey ratified the Paris Agreement on climate and pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2053.
Turkey is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In recent decades flooding, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, landslides and extreme windstorms have affected the country with increasing frequency and intensity.
The country is frequently hit by heavy rains and wildfires that have caused death, destroyed infrastructure and forced emergency evacuations. The outbreak of sea mucilage, also believed to be the biggest in history, choked sea life, damaged the tourism and fishing industry and threatened to impede the only shipping access to the Black Sea.
Climate change has also reduced the availability of water. Under current trends, the country is projected to become water scarce by 2030—potentially raising concerns over agricultural yields, rural livelihoods, jobs along value chains, food prices and food security for vulnerable people.
