EGİAD Organized by the Industry, Digitalization and Sustainability Commission, the “Climate Crisis and EU Green Reconciliation” Meeting was held online with the participation of WWF-Turkey (World Wildlife Fund) Chairman Uğur Bayar and Climate and Energy Program Senior Specialist Tanyeli Behiç Sabuncu. In the webinar, the main messages and principles of the European Green Deal and the working guidelines of companies for the climate crisis were evaluated.
Taking the Green Deal as a principle, the environmental plan put forward by the European Union in line with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030% by 55 and being carbon neutral in 2050. EGİAD, continues to act with the aim of being a guide for all its member companies. Aegean Young Businessmen Association, which works within the framework of the Green Agreement to minimize its carbon footprint, organizes various information seminars to achieve this goal. Finally, the business organization hosted Uğur Bayar, Chairman of the Board of WWF-Turkey (World Wildlife Fund), one of the leading nature conservation organizations in our country, and Tanyeli Behiç Sabuncu, Senior Specialist of the Climate and Energy Program, in the online event it held.
We the Humans are the Cause of the Climate Crisis
The keynote speaker of the meeting EGİAD Alp Avni Yelkenbiçer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, emphasized that WWF-Turkey, which has become a part of the network of WWF (World Wildlife Fund), one of the world's oldest and largest nature conservation organizations operating in more than 100 countries, manages pioneering projects that will set an example for the whole society. and thanked them for their participation. Referring to the effects created by greenhouse gases, Yelkenbiçer said, “We can characterize the increase in greenhouse gases as the primary cause of forest fires in the summer months and floods and blizzards in the winter months. The primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions is human activities. We continue to emit greenhouse gases in all our activities while producing something, using electricity, growing something, traveling between cities and countries, heating or cooling. The biggest reason for these is the use of fossil fuels, which is very common around the world.” said.
We Must Change Our Perspective
In the light of all these, Yelkenbiçer pointed out that the necessity of a paradigm change has emerged in all our activities and perspectives and said, “Because of all these developments, the Paris Agreement has been accepted globally. Under this agreement, governments have made a commitment to limit global temperature rise to a maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to strive to keep it below 1,5°C. Unfortunately, current efforts towards this goal are insufficient. In recent years, measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have become more attractive in many cases to policy makers and private investors around the world. This is mainly due to falling technology costs, as well as increased awareness of adverse impacts to be avoided and the benefits of mitigation measures such as zero-carbon technology and infrastructure development, such as improved air quality and job creation. Increasing climate action in Turkey in the electricity supply, road and rail passenger transport and residential buildings sectors alone could reduce economy-wide emissions by 2030% by 2017 compared to 14 levels and reverse the current upward trend. Considered together, these sectors are responsible for approximately 50% of Turkey's national greenhouse gas emissions.
Pointing out that the adverse conditions created by climate change affect all living systems, EGİAD President Yelkenbiçer said, “With the increase in temperature due to heating, evaporation increases and the moisture of the soil decreases. In this case, the diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms living in humid environments changes accordingly. The different adaptation periods of living things to these rapidly changing climatic conditions will directly affect ecological systems. Considering that the pressure of climate change has begun to be felt widely, especially in Turkey, which has rich biological resources, the magnitude of the danger is remarkable. Necessary measures should be taken to prevent the irreparable and possible damages of life support units, which are indispensable elements of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, lake and sea diversity, resulting from climate change.
The Borderline Carbon Tax Opportunity to Transform Our Economy
Pointing out the importance of completely changing the fossil fuel-based economic model at this point, Yelkenbiçer said, “One of the new measures discussed in this context is the 'border carbon tax'. We should see such a regulation that will directly affect Turkey, not as a threat, but as an opportunity to transform our economy; In this direction, we must develop a holistic climate change and a new development policy with the vision of being carbon neutral.”
The New Revolution Will Be Green Transformation
Uğur Bayar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of WWF-Turkey (World Wildlife Fund), pointed out that the world population was below 1900 billion during 1 years, and that 1900 billion people were added to the population in the 2000-year period between 100 and 6, “There is an enormous human demand from nature. aforementioned. The industrial revolutions that have been experienced so far have taken place within the framework of fossil fuels. The new revolution will take place as the Green Transformation. We are aware that the cost of this will be very high. We also know that it won't happen in a day. But unless we make this change, life will disappear. According to our Living Planet Report, 50 percent of the entire vertebrate population has disappeared in 68 years. That means 10 out of 7 animals are gone. Every year we are depleting the Earth's capacity to regenerate itself. By 2030, we will need 2 planets per year. "We are the first generation to feel the effects of the climate crisis and the last generation to take action," he said.
6 Times More Forest Area Burned
Climate and Energy Program Senior Specialist Tanyeli Behiç Sabuncu conveyed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and the latest situation in climate change. Noting that despite the decision to limit the average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, it has already reached 1.2 degrees, “The widespread and rapid change observed due to the increase in temperature in the atmosphere is irreversible. Temperatures in the last ten years have reached the highest values since the ice age, reaching the level last seen 125 years ago. If we look at Turkey, fire, flood and erosion are expected to increase exponentially in the coming period. In Turkey, approximately 194 thousand hectares of forest area has been burned so far this year. This is almost 2008 times the area of approximately 2020 thousand hectares burned in the same date range and region between 33 and 6,” he said. Tanyeli Behiç Sabuncu also gave in-depth information about the EU Green Deal and conveyed the Green Deal Action Plan.
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