Turkey to play pivotal role in global climate change fight: Erdoğan
ANKARA
Turkey will take a lead role in combatting climate change globally, poised to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate before the Glasgow summit in November, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 27.
“Turkey is taking a new and historic step on climate change, which is a natural result of the green development revolution, which I believe is one of the first and most critical goals of our 2053 vision,” Erdoğan said after a cabinet meeting.
Ankara will have completed the ratification process (of the Paris Agreement) before the climate change summit in Glasgow in November, he noted.
He reminded that Turkey was among the first signatories of the Paris Agreement in 2015 but it had not initiated the ratification process of the agreement in parliament due to the country’s objection to injustices in the section on obligations.
“As part of the recent developments, the commitments given to our country and our national contribution statement, we have decided to ratify this agreement with the start of the new legislative year of the parliament next month,” he stated.
“This decision means that we will make comprehensive changes in a wide area from investment to production, from export to employment, within the framework of the calendar we have determined. We have already taken an important step in this regard by preparing and putting into effect the action plan required for harmonization with the European Union Green Deal,” the president said.
Turkey would prepare and carry out all our medium and long-term development programs under the guidance of the structural transformation required by the green development revolution, Erdoğan noted.
Turkey signed the Paris climate pact a year after it was accepted on Oct. 5, 2015, by 195 countries and is the only member of the G20 that has not ratified it yet since the deal places it among developed countries, thereby obliging it to provide financial resources to assist developing countries to implement the convention’s objectives.
Turkey was included in Annex I and Annex II lists at the very beginning of the process in 1992 due to its OECD membership. The seventh Conference of Parties (COP) of UNFCCC in 2001 adopted a decision regarding the deletion of Turkey’s name from Annex II.
Annex-I countries are obliged to transfer environment-friendly technologies to developing countries and take all necessary steps to encourage, facilitate and finance access to these technologies on top of other responsibilities.
Turkey defended that it had no historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions in 1992 despite being included in Annex I, as by that time, the country was in the last row of the Annex I list among 36 countries in terms of greenhouse gas emission with a per capita ratio of 3,88 tCO2e (less than 1 percent of the global total), while the average greenhouse gas emission of the Annex I countries was 14.37 tCO2e per capita.
Turkey ready to take part in post-pandemic efforts for stronger world
Turkey is ready to take part in post-pandemic efforts for a stronger world in all aspects, Erdoğan told the Global COVID-19 Summit on Sept. 28.
"A new pandemic is not a possibility, it is only a matter of time," Erdoğan said in a video message. "Therefore, eliminating the deficiencies identified is not an option but a political responsibility."
"It is our duty to future generations to make the multilateral system robust and prepared against global health threats in the light of the lessons learned from the (COVID-19) pandemic," he continued.
He underlined that it is "a moral imperative" to support "the universal health right" of disadvantaged groups - their access to vaccines, diagnosis, treatment, and personal protection tools.