Page 331 - 7. State Of Environment Report Of Türkiye

Minamata Convention

The “Minamata Convention on Mercury” was prepared under the leadership of the United Nati-
ons Environment Program (UNEP) in order to contribute to the efforts to prevent environmental
pollution caused by mercury on a global scale.

The Minamata Convention includes some control and reduction measures for products, pro-
cesses and industries that use, release or emit mercury and their mercury-containing wastes.
Within the scope of the Convention, countries are required to ban the production, import and
export of certain products containing mercury and effectively dispose of their wastes, to de-
velop strategies to reduce the amount of mercury used and its releases, and to use the Best
Available Technologies in new facilities to be opened within certain periods of time to reduce
emissions and releases from large industrial facilities, and to reduce their emissions within a
certain plan for existing facilities.

Türkiye signed the Minamata Convention in 2014 and successfully submitted its ratification do-
cument on October 4, 2022, becoming the 138 Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
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Preparations for the Draft Mercury By-law for the implementation of the Minamata Convention
at the national level are ongoing. Türkiye has been taking steps on Mercury Management at the
national level since the 1980s.

Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement is based primarily on the United Nations Framework Convention on Clima-
te Change and aims to regulate the climate change regime after 2020, the expiration date of the
Kyoto Protocol.

The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen global socioeconomic resilience against the threat of
climate change in the post-2020 period. The long-term goal of the agreement is to keep the
global temperature increase as low as possible below 2°C (if possible, at 1.5°C) compared to the
pre-industrial period. This goal should be achieved by gradually reducing the use of fossil fuels
(oil, coal) and shifting towards renewable energy.

“Law on Approval of Ratification of the Paris Agreement” was published in the Official Gazette
dated 7 October 2021 and numbered 31621. The Ratification Document and our National Decla-
ration regarding the Paris Agreement were deposited with the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, which is the Depositary of the Agreement, on 11 October 2021. Türkiye signed the Paris
Agreement in 2016.

Barcelona Convention

The decision to include the protection of the Mediterranean among the priority targets within
the scope of the “Regional Seas Program” established by the United Nations (UN) Environment
Program (UNEP) in 1974 resulted in the establishment of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP)
in 1975 with the participation of the countries bordering the Mediterranean and the EU. The
“Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention)”

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