June 02, 2017•Update: June 03, 2017
By Yildiz Nevin Gundogmus
ANKARA
Turkey has called on other signatory countries of the Paris climate deal to continue the fight against climate change following the U.S withdrawal from the accord.
“We hope that the other countries will not follow Trump saying, 'If USA did it, I will also do it.’ If they follow [him], this will cause the Paris deal to collapse,” Mehmet Emin Birpinar, Turkey’s chief negotiator for climate change talks, told Anadolu Agency on Friday.
The Paris Agreement, spearheaded by Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and signed by 195 countries in April 2016, aims to fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions and limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius.
“If the Paris deal does not work, we cannot reach the targets [established by the agreement]. This will also make the world vulnerable to expected disasters within the coming 100 years,” Birpinar added, calling on all the signatory countries to "take on the responsibility in order to prevent a catastrophe."
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the accord aimed at combating climate change, breaking with the overwhelming majority of the international community.
During his election campaign, Trump called global warming "a hoax" and promised to scrap the agreement and return jobs to the coal industry that is often targeted by environmentalists.
Turkey's complaints
Birpinar also complained about "unfairness" towards Turkey.
As part of the deal, Turkey cannot benefit from international funds, he said.
“During the entire negotiations, we’ve said that this deal was not fair for Turkey and was not compatible with our interests but we’ve taken on the responsibility for the continuation in the fight against climate change. We think that this deal needs to be renegotiated and we need to benefit from international funds in order to do better things.”
According to United Nations,147 countries have ratified the agreement so far.
“We don’t think to ratify this deal by presenting before the Grand National Assembly of Turkey since our problems are resolved," he added.
Turkey was among the states to sign the agreement in New York following the COP21 conference in the French capital in December that saw states pledge to decrease their greenhouse gas emission levels.
Ankara has promised to reduce its emissions by 21 percent over the next 14 years.
