Page 36 - 7. State Of Environment Report Of Türkiye

STATE OF

ENVIRONMENT

REPORTING

STUDIES IN

TÜRKİYE

Rapidly increasing population, Urbanization, economic activities and diversifying consumption
habits increase the pressure on the environment and natural resources. Environmental prob-
lems such as environmental pollution, climate change, desertification, deforestation, loss of bi-
odiversity and drought have a significant impact on human life and development process day
by day.

It is seen that climate change, which is accelerating with the effect of high greenhouse gas emis-
sions, causes an increase in natural disasters and poses a serious threat to humanity on a global
scale. In today’s world of increasing demand and consumption, sustainable environmental and
natural resource management and the construction of livable cities are becoming more and
more important.

Problems such as global warming, climate change, desertification, drought, increase in natural
disasters and cross-border transport of pollutants, viruses that spread from destroyed areas and
can be transmitted to humans give signs that our world will become increasingly difficult to live
in unless measures are taken. As a result, we risk destroying our well-being and nature’s ability
to meet our needs.
In summary, it has become clear that our ecological footprint has begun to exceed the self-re-
newal capacity of our planet. Environmental degradation caused by air and water pollution, no-
ise, radiation, chemicals or biological factors, destruction of natural areas, especially forests, have
negative effects on human health. Environmental problems have become a global element that
concerns all people without borders.
In order to reduce our ecological footprint, a life cycle approach to resource management has
recently been introduced as a guide, a basic principle. In Türkiye, efforts to reach a society with
zero waste as the ultimate goal have gained momentum. As a result of the efforts targeting a ze-
ro-waste lifestyle, great progress is being made in the internalisation of concepts such as “green
economy” and “green cities”.

In Türkiye, for the first time, the environmental sector has been included in national program-
th
mes as a part of development plans since the 5 Five-Year Development Plan covering the years
th
1985-1989. In the 11 Development Plan covering the years 2019-2023, under the axis of “Livable
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