Turkey to update national climate action plan amid ratification of Paris Agreement

ANKARA

Eyes are turned to the steps that Turkey would take from now on after the Turkish parliament on Wednesday ratified the Paris Climate Agreement to contribute to the global efforts against climate change.

As a first step, Turkey is expected to update its national climate action plan, officially known as Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), including emission reduction targets in the "energy, waste, transportation, buildings and agriculture" sectors and submit them to the UN Secretariat.

Turkey committed to reducing its emission increase by %21 by 2030 as part of its climate action plan submitted to the UN Secretariat in 2015.

As part of the Paris Agreement, Turkey is expected to update and resubmit its NDC to the Secretariat for the 2030 target.

Another important target of Turkey in the fight against climate change is to achieve "net-zero carbon emissions" by 2053, a plan announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Net zero-emission means that all man-made greenhouse gas emissions must be removed from the atmosphere through reduction measures, thus reducing the Earth's net climate balance, after removal via natural and artificial sink, to zero.

Turkey plans to organize a council in Jan.2022 to combat climate change, the country's Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum announced on Monday.

Turkey will determine a long-term strategic action plan on combating climate change at the meeting, which will be attended by representatives of the private sector, non-governmental organizations, universities, industrialists and international organizations.

The action plan will constitute the infrastructure for Turkey's national climate action plan and net-zero emission target.

On Dec. 12, 2015, parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reached an agreement to fight climate change and achieve a sustainable low-carbon future at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris.

The Paris Agreement, defined as "a bridge between today's policies and climate-neutrality before the end of the 21st century," seeks to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by stopping global average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels over the next century, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz.