Turkey promotes electrification and waste cuts before COP31, Al-Monitor reports

Turkey is promoting electrification and waste reduction ahead of COP31, which is due to open Monday in Antalya, Al-Monitor reported on November 8. Environmental campaigners are challenging the agenda over the country's continued use of coal.

Turkey will host the summit, with Australia directing negotiations as co-host, according to the report. A voluntary goal for electricity to supply 35 percent of worldwide energy demand by 2035 forms part of Turkey's 10-point Action Agenda.

On the domestic side, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has announced a $500 billion plan to electrify the economy, Al-Monitor reported. It includes increasing installed wind and solar capacity to 175 gigawatts, four times the current level.

But coal still generates a third of Turkey's electricity, according to Al-Monitor. The country has set no deadline to stop using coal and intends to enlarge two operating coal-fired plants, the report said.

Greenpeace Turkey campaigner Emel Turker Alpay told Al-Monitor that the global electricity target does not require clean generation. Her criticism concerns the source of the power, rather than simply how much energy demand shifts to electricity.

What Turkey's emissions pledge sets out

Turkey's official Second Nationally Determined Contribution sets a ceiling of 643 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent for greenhouse gas emissions in 2035. That is 466 million tonnes below its business-as-usual projection. Turkey also aims to reach net-zero emissions in 2053.

The target dates differ between the report and the official submission. Al-Monitor associates a 41-percent reduction against projected emissions with 2035; the official document assigns that percentage to the earlier 2030 commitment and gives a separate emissions ceiling for 2035.

A cut measured against projected business-as-usual emissions is not, by itself, a commitment to emit less than today. The official submission also lists more renewable generation, electrification and greater energy and resource efficiency among the measures in Turkey's 2024–2030 mitigation plan.

Waste prevention and recycling

Turkey's other diplomatic priority is its Zero Waste Initiative, led by Emine Erdogan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Al-Monitor reported that the initiative seeks international cooperation on cutting methane released by waste.

Alpay said the Action Agenda aims to halve projected growth in global waste by 2035, but argued that its policies concentrate on handling waste once it exists rather than preventing its production.

Turkey's national climate submission describes a broader set of waste policies, separate from the summit agenda. It lists reducing waste generation, separating materials where waste is produced, increasing recycling and sending less waste to landfill among its objectives.