By Barçın Yinanç
At the beginning, he was not so sure whether having a co-chairmanship for COP31 would work well, confessed Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Australia and Turkey both refused to withdraw their candidacy as host, they became co-hosts of this year’s climate summit, a first in the history of the multilateral conference.
“We are now playing with two strikers,” said Birol, an ardent fan of Galatasaray, speaking at a conference last week organized by the weekly Oksijen.
“I know some countries still have their doubts,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci. But at a time when the US has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, the lack of consensus about the next host of COP31 was going to give a negative message to multilateralism, according to Ekinci.
The two countries decided to join hands, a message of confidence in consensus diplomacy.
ANTALYA’S TARGET 35-35
After having met the leaders of the two countries, Birol appears to have their support to secure a commitment in Antalya to increase the current 23% share of electricity in global energy to 35% by 2035.
“Electrification is an area where both Turkey and Australia can have common cause. If we can get an agreement on this target in Antalya, this will not only be a political document; this will give a message, an orientation to the markets and investors,” Birol told the audience, mainly from the business world.
“The support of Turkish and Australian leaders will make our job easier in Antalya,” said the head of IEA, which has become a strategic partner to COP31, also a first for climate diplomacy.
With climate activists frustrated about unfulfilled promises, Birol believes setting a common global target will also facilitate implementation.
While work continues on the final statement about the 35-35 target, the fundamental issue remains the “source” of electricity production.
Producing electricity from clean energy is essential to reach climate targets. Yet countries which are rich in fossil fuels appear to object to the word “clean,” which in turn meets a counter-reaction from the others.
ZERO WASTE ON THE AGENDA
Among other issues on the agenda, according to Birol, is the zero waste project, an initiative launched in 2017 by First Lady Emine Erdoğan.
“We are conducting a work on the subject to see what will be the impact on emissions if we were to reduce global waste by half over the next 10 years,” said Birol.
Despite a push for more efficient waste management, there are concerns over weak enforcement.
Turkey has become the EU’s largest destination for plastic waste, receiving hundreds of thousands of tonnes each year. A recent article by Politico put under the spotlight concerns raised by the EU over illegal dumping, pollution and inadequate recycling capacity.
EU officials and environmental groups argue that further action is needed to ensure imported plastic is properly recycled and does not contribute to environmental damage.
SİLİVRİ ON THE SPOTLIGHT THIS TIME FOR CO2 EMISSIONS
Meanwhile, yet another story emerged recently questioning Turkey’s track record on its contribution to CO2 emissions.
Silivri, a neighborhood outside Istanbul notorious for its prison and courtroom for political prisoners, was again under the spotlight, this time for its landfill, which is emitting gasses including methane, “a potent climate-heating gas, pouring out of the site in such vast quantities that the plume is visible from space,” according to the Guardian.
Satellite surveillance shows that the Silivri landfill is Turkey’s worst super-emitting waste site, the newspaper wrote, adding “its average emission rate of 7.4 tonnes an hour makes it one of the worst identified anywhere in the world by a team of expert researchers at the University of California (UCLA).”
Silivri is just one of the super-emitting dumps across Turkey.
They stretch from Izmir in the west, to Ankara in the center and Antalya, which ironically is expected to host 100,000 people for the climate summit.
