TURKEY CAN ACCELERATE ITS CLIMATE ACTION IN THREE KEY AREAS...

Press release...

CAT Scaling Up Climate Action series...

The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) strives to support enhancing climate action in the context of the Paris Agreement implementation. This analysis contributes to future revisions of mitigation targets, and aims at spurring an increase in climate mitigation actions, to close the gap between current emissions projections and required Paris-compatible pathways. As part of this, we have been researching the potential for countries to scale up climate action in different focus areas.

The analysis in this report is relevant to Parties considering revisions to their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to be submitted under the Paris Agreement by 2020 or thereafter, and also to their submission of long-term low greenhouse gas development plans, also due by 2020. The result is our Scaling Up Climate Action country series, which identifies options for increased sectoral action that would move a country towards a pathway compatible with the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature limit and estimates the impact of those actions on emissions and other benefits. The first round of our analysis covers South Africa, the European Union, Argentina, Indonesia, Turkey, and Australia.

The consistent method and similar structure for all six reports allows for country-specific insights, while enabling a cross-country comparison to draw general research findings and lessons learnt on global potentials.

Executive summary...

Introduction and objectives...

 Under the Paris Agreement, governments have committed to limiting temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. Current efforts are insufficient: aggregate mitigation targets for 2030, according to Climate Action Tracker (CAT) estimates, result in global warming of about 3.0°C by 2100. Implementation of the targets is falling short, with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under implemented policies leading to an estimated warming of around 3.3°C. To stay below the globally agreed limit, the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C finds that an increase in efforts is required to peak global GHG emissions as soon as possible, reduce them by 45% compared to 2010 by 2030, and reduce CO2 emissions to net-zero around 2050 and total GHG emissions by around 2070.

We no longer live in a world where climate change mitigation is a burden per se, but where it increasingly becomes the most feasible option when considering all socio-economic aspects. For cost-efficient global mitigation, it will be essential to make those mitigation actions accessible to, and overcome remaining barriers in, all countries. In recent years, measures to reduce GHG emissions have, in many cases, become more attractive globally to policy makers and private investors, both because of falling technology costs, as well as increased awareness of the negative impacts to be avoided and other positive benefits of mitigation measures such as air quality improvement and job creation from zero-carbon technology and infrastructure development.

This report, the fifth country assessment in the Climate Action Tracker’s Scaling Up Climate Action Series, analyses three key areas where Turkey could accelerate its climate action: electricity supply, road and rail passenger transport and the residential buildings sector. The report illustrates GHG emissions reductions from such actions, along with other benefits for sustainable development. Our analysis begins with an in-depth review of Turkey’s current policy framework and sectoral developments, comparing them with the policy packages and the sector indicators required under 1.5°C-compatible pathways. We then focus on three areas we have identified that have a large potential to increase mitigation efforts: electricity supply, passenger road and train transport, and residential buildings.

They were selected based on their share of GHG emissions while considering national and local circumstances, and the potential for scaling up climate action in these areas. The CAT emphasises that other sectors must also take similarly ambitious actions to decrease economywide emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.