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Sustainability in The Era of Türkiye

In this respect, many regulations have been implemented in thematic areas
such as energy, industry, buildings, transportation, finance and waste, and hence
the pressure on the environment has been reduced considering the welfare
of the people. Although Türkiye is a developing country, emission generation
has been limited as much as possible, and new job opportunities and serious
employment potentials have been created upon the implementation of green
technologies. Especially renewable energy investments in electrical energy,
clean production in industry, industrial symbiosis, zero waste movement,
developments in solid waste and waste-water management, promotion of
micro-mobility in transportation, district heating systems and recovery of waste
heat, and environmental labelling system are just some of these practices.
Furthermore, long-term strategy documents, especially on the fight against
climate change, have been prepared and the National Green Deal Action
Plan (Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye, 2021) was drawn up and put
into effect in July 2021. Undoubtedly, the most prominent issue in the Plan,
which includes 32 targets and 80 actions under 9 main fields, and addresses
the areas such as the fight against climate change, a green and circular
economy, carbon border adjustments, zero pollution, sustainable agriculture/
transportation and clean energy, has been carbon border adjustment. The
efforts for establishing an ETS (emission trading system) on a national basis
in Türkiye, have been accelerated because Türkiye, which has a great market
relationship with the European Union, has been influenced by this carbon
border adjustment mechanism adopted by the EU for allocation of an
additional carbon emission fee, in case there is no ETS or carbon tax in the
relevant country for certain product groups imported from outside the EU, in
order to make the ETS implemented since 2005 more dynamic, to maintain
competitiveness on an industry basis and to combat climate change more
effectively on a regional basis.
The activities have been carried out for a long time to establish a national
emissions trading system in Türkiye. In order to internalize the issue that
has been studied for 10 years, for a healthy practice that will not harm the
competitiveness of Türkiye on a global and regional basis, multi-dimensional
stakeholder analyses have been performed. Currently, the EGD has acted as a
catalyst in this process, and with the support of the industrialists, it is aimed to
establish and implement a national ETS in the near future. Also, a climate law
that will form the legal infrastructure of the carbon-neutral target of Türkiye
has been drafted, and a climate council has been convened for the first time in
Türkiye to create a healthy legal infrastructure in this respect, and its outputs
have enlightened the draft of climate law (First Climate Council, 2022).

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 7