Turkey ranks fourth from last in climate change

MEHVEŞ EVİN

Talks over climate change are heating up. Canada officially declared it will not participate in the second round of the Kyoto Protocol, though this came as no surprise. Canada, which had provided so much funding for the struggle against apartheid, was roundly chided for its decision.
China and the United States were the two countries most spoken about in the “Climate Change Summit” organized by the United Nations in Durban, South Africa. China, with all its infamy regarding its greenhouse gas emissions, says it will comply with the Kyoto Protocol and build its economy entirely on renewable energies and novel technologies.
The United States, on the other hand, which has yet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, is still busy passing the buck. Nongovernmental organizations have subsequently called on the U.S. to either set an example or withdraw.
We have almost no policy
The representatives of various countries are continuing to hold fervid talks in Durban. Meanwhile, two prestigious institutions have published their latest reports on countries that pollute the world.
Germanwatch has issued its annual “Climate Change Performance Index” compiled in collaboration with around 200 climate experts. This index is based entirely on standard criteria and input, with its calculations reflecting the climate policies of 58 countries and their carbon dioxide emissions. No country exhibited a “very good performance,” according to the index. The top three countries who each exhibited “good performance” were Sweden, Britain and Germany.
The sticking point is that Turkey was listed among countries performing the worst.
We rank fourth from last, according to Germanwatch. The three countries below Turkey, demonstrating the worst performances are Kazakhstan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Countries, in other words, with no policy, code of conduct and no work on climate change!
Moreover, Turkey is also among the five countries in the most egregious category listed under the title “Climate Change Policies.” The Saudis rank top, while Canada, Iran and Italy follow them.
Our children will have no access to water
An additional report has been issued by the British meteorology department. After examining 20 countries with respect to global warming, Metoffice warned of the prospects of serious droughts in Turkey. It was determined that, since 1960, temperatures had surged by about 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius in the north, by 3 to 3.5 degrees in the center and southwest, and by 3.5 to 4 degrees in the east. Although starvation does not seem to be a significant threat, a bleak future nonetheless awaits us solely due to global warming.
Most horrifying of all, some 45 percent of the world’s population is expected to suffer from a serious shortage of drinking water; even if we began taking substantial measures to combat global warming at this very moment, that rate is only going to drop to 30 percent at most.
What was that? Match-fixing scandal, you say? Well, that is Turkey’s most pressing agenda, of course!