Three weeks before the UN-sponsored world climate conference (COP26), which will be held from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, United Kingdom, Turkey has taken a step in favor of the environment . Parliament unanimously ratified the Paris Climate Agreement on Wednesday evening, following its president’s pledge to the United Nations General Assembly last month.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan had indeed announced this decision at the end of September in New York, making his country the 191st to ratify this agreement which should make it possible to limit the rise in average temperatures on the planet to 2 degrees and if possible to 1.5 ° C. . Turkey signed the Paris Agreement in 2016, but it was one of the last major greenhouse gas emitting countries to have yet to ratify it.
Dramatic fires
The Turkish president had so far justified his abstention by invoking injustices linked to obligations and burden sharing, in terms of reducing polluting emissions: for Ankara, efforts must be differentiated between industrialized countries, a category to which the country belongs However. Turkey’s net greenhouse gas emissions have increased by more than 150% since 1990, according to official Turkish figures.
But the climate issue suddenly took hold in the country this summer after a succession of extreme weather events, including forest fires on the Mediterranean coast and flooding in the north, which claimed a hundred victims and caused more significant damage to nature. Turkey is also hit by a persistent drought, which is already forcing some producers to abandon their land and others to turn to new crops that require less water.
Conservationists are further alarmed by Ankara’s drive to boost coal-based energy production, as Turkey officially plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 21% by 2030 .
Turkey was also not the only country expected to finalize the Paris Agreement. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Ethiopia have yet to ratify the text.