Greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey

[2]: iv  The nation's coal-fired power stations emit the most carbon dioxide, and other significant sources are road vehicles running on petrol or diesel.

Economists say that major reasons for Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions are subsidies for coal-fired power stations,[5]: 18  and the lack of a price on carbon pollution.

But the long-term plan omits coal phase-out,[3][11] and its nationally determined contribution (NDC 3.0[12]) to the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change, which is due in 2025, has not yet been published.

[13][14] In 2024 environment minister Murat Kurum said that by Turkey’s net zero year of 2053 half of primary energy would be from renewables and 30% from nuclear, but did not explain how the remaining 20% could be decarbonized.

[20] Climate Trace use space-based measurements of carbon dioxide to quantify large emission sources, like major coal-fired power stations in Turkey.

[24] Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) includes sharing information and lessons learned, which strengthens the trust of international climate finance donors.

[38] In 2021, IEA head Fatih Birol called for fossil-fuel producing countries to include limits on methane leaks in their climate pledges,[39] for example the United States is doing this.

Subsidised coal burnt by poor families contributes a bit to climate change, and more importantly its soot pollutes local air.

[47]: 177  If operated at the targeted capacity factor, planned units at Afşin Elbistan would add over 60 Mt CO2 per year,[48]: 319  more than one-tenth of the country's entire emissions.

[1]: 155  Climate Trace has estimated the contributions of individual factories, sometimes from kiln heat visible from satellites,[76] and says that Nuh, Göltaş, and Medcem cement plants emitted more than 1 Mt each in 2023.

Fertilizers can emit the GHG nitrous oxide, but estimates of the effects of government policy on the agricultural and waste sectors' emissions are lacking.

[96] Climate Trace estimate Odayeri (even though it has a biogas facility[97]) on the European side of Istanbul to be the biggest waste single emitter at over 6 Mt in 2023.

[111] Public and private sector working groups discussed the European Green Deal,[112] and the Trade Ministry published an action plan in response to its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

[125] Fossil fuel subsidies risk carbon lock-in, but if they were scrapped (as suggest by environment minister Şimşek[126]) wind and solar power could expand faster.

[128] Ramping down nuclear power in Turkey will be technically possible, at times when solar or wind increases or electricity demand drops, but would be expensive because of high fixed costs and lost sales revenue.

[138] The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said that more could be done to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, and that tax incentives offered for this would create jobs.

[153] Further decarbonisation of cement production would depend heavily on carbon capture,[3]: section 4.2.2.1  perhaps storing in a salt dome near Lake Tuz[154] or in Diyarbakır Province.

[3]: section 4.2.2.1 [194] As of 2021[update] there are almost no supporters of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, to provide information to investors about the risks of climate change to companies.

[218] During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, growth of the Turkish economy, and to a lesser extent population, caused increased emissions from electricity generation,[219]: 10, 11  industry and construction,[220]: 59–62  as described by the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis.

[3]: section 4.2.2.1  While the government pledged to buy 30,000 locally made electric cars,[230] there were few explicit green measures in the 2020 package designed to aid recovery from the country's COVID-19 recession.

[105]: 43 Worldwide, marginal abatement cost studies show that improving the energy efficiency of buildings and replacing fossil fuelled power plants with renewables are usually the most cost-effective ways of reducing carbon emissions.

[236]: 74  Economics professor Ebru Voyvoda has criticised growth policies based on the construction and real estate sectors, and said that moving from fossil fuels to electricity is important.

[268] Likewise, until local production of solar panels[124] and electric vehicles,[269] and mining lithium for batteries[167] all greatly increase, it is hard to avoid importing a lot of petroleum to make diesel and gasoline.

[272] In a 2011 dispute over air pollution in Turkey, the main opposition Republican People's Party criticised the government for prioritising fossil fuels.

[277]: 24  While discussing their limited actions on climate change, Turkey and other countries cited the forthcoming 2020 United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement (not knowing at that time that the US would rejoin early the following year) .

Rather than increase imports of gas, it wanted to retain domestic coal, albeit with safeguards to reduce the impact on human health and the environment.

[288] According to former Economy Minister Kemal Derviş, many people will benefit from the green transition, but the losses will be concentrated on specific groups, making them more visible and politically disruptive.

[289]At the municipal level, Antalya, Bornova, Bursa, Çankaya, Eskişehir Tepebaşı, Gaziantep, İzmir, Kadıköy, Maltepe, Nilüfer and Seferihisar have sustainable energy and climate plans.

The government says that, as a developing country having less than 1% responsibility for historical greenhouse gas emissions, Turkey's position under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement is not fair at all.

[321][322] Environmental lawyers became more active in the 2020s,[323] but as of 2021[update], the European Court of Human Rights has not yet decided whether to hear the case of Duarte Agostinho and Others v. several countries including Turkey, brought by children and young adults.

Coal-fired power stations, such as the ZETES power stations , are the largest source of greenhouse gas. [ 1 ] : 459
Graph showing the types of greenhouse gases emitted by Turkey
As in most countries carbon dioxide, mostly from burning fossil fuels, is the main GHG
Burning coal, petrol, diesel and natural gas is putting far more carbon dioxide into the air than forests can take out. There is some correlation with the economic history of Turkey , such as a dip during the 2001 economic crisis .
Chart showing the top sources of greenhouse gases are, in order: coal-fired electricity, road transport, home fuel, cement, cattle and gas-fired electricity
Coal-fired power stations emit the most, followed by cars and lorries.
Graph shows carbon dioxide emitted by coal, oil, and natural gas over the years from 1990
Emissions from gas increased, but remain far below coal. Emissions from oil products, such as petrol and diesel, increased more slowly than gas and coal.
Photograph of haze from burning coal over apartment blocks
Pollution over Ankara . Coal is still burnt to heat older buildings in cities.
white smoke rises into a blue sky from 3 large chimneys
Some old power stations like Yatağan pollute but are subsidized.
Photograph of two lanes of cars, buses and taxis at a standstill in a traffic jame
A traffic jam in Istanbul , one of the few major European cities without a low-emission zone . [ 59 ]
brown Jersey cow wearing a fancy halter in a green field
Almost half of agricultural emissions are from cows.
Graph showing that most emissions are from energy and heat production, and they have increased a lot since 1990 but decreased in 2019 and 2020
Greenhouse gas target
From 1990 the net emissions per person graph line rises in jagged parallel somewhat below gross emissions, until it dips more sharply in 2019
Greenhouse gas per person, before and after absorption by forests. The greater net dip in 2019 is because forest cover was resurveyed and found to be more than previously thought.
conifer trees covering a mountainside
These existing trees are being added to by reforestation .
Recent economic growth emits less carbon dioxide
Chart showing results of the Peoples' Climate Vote 2024 survey, regarding support for a quick transition away from fossil fuels
colourful tiny model trucks containing coal with "Soma" written on the side
Children's models commemorating the Soma mine disaster – "This is how they earn their daily bread"
two tall chimneys and large buildings lit up at night
Çatalağzı power station in Zonguldak : Turkey's first coal mining region would need help to give up.