TÜSİAD communicated the opinions of the private sector on the low-carbon economy at the UN Climate Change in Doha

TÜSİAD participated with a 6 person delegation to the 18th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties as an accredited institution in the category of “Business and Industry Non Governmental Organization” (BINGO), and as part of the official Turkish delegation.

TÜSİAD organized a side event within the framework of the UN Climate Change Conference, with the title of “Transition to the Low-Carbon Economy in Turkey and The Role of the Private Sector”.

Prominent topics and suggestion of the TÜSİAD side event of the 18th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties are as follows:

•    Similar to the energy security and economic and financial crisis, the climate change is a global problem and therefore it requires a global solution. Following the short and medium term target laid down in Durban and legal framework spawned to fight against the climate change, global events such as global economic crisis, the disaster of Fukushima nuclear accident, the progress in shale gas technology and ensuing decrease of the coal price, had an adverse effect on the climate change negotiations.
•    As a responsible country supporting international action for the reduction of greenhouse gas emission, Turkey prefers a legally binding climate regulation giving responsibility to all parties. However we need technical and financial support in order to carry out the transition to the low-carbon economy and to fight against the climate change.
•    The financial instruments needed for the transition to the low-carbon economy are not fully matured yet. To this end, efforts for designing of new mechanisms which will eliminate the need for the short term complementary supports are going on.
•    The development of the financial instruments and mechanisms for the transition to the low-carbon economy, the implementation and updating of the regulatory framework, and the demonstration of the business intelligence in implementing new technologies are crucial.
•    The private sector and the industries which are under a serious obligations with respect to the EU harmonization targets and to the climate change must assume an active role in the negotiations and the harmonization process and their knowledge and experience must be incorporated in the national and industrial positions

The UN Climate Change Conference Decision on Turkey

The special circumstances of Turkey are being negotiated since the beginning of the negotiations, because of its misplacement as an OECD country by the Kyoto Protocols. It was decided at the 16th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Cancun to consider its special circumstances and “to support the access of Turkey to the financing, technology and capacity-building supports to develop its ability to better implement the Agreement.

The decision of the 18th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to clarify the special situation of Turkey as follows:

“(Conference of the Parties ) urges Parties included in Annex II to the Convention, through multilateral agencies, including through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) within its mandate, bilateral agencies and the private sector or through any further arrangements, as appropriate, to make available financial assistance to Parties included in Annex I whose special circumstances are recognized by the Conference of the Parties in order to assist these Parties in the implementation of their national climate change strategies and action plans; and recalling decision 1/CP.16, to make available financial and technical support for capacity building, including assistance for the development of low emission development strategies or plans.”

With this decision, an important progress has been made to obtain financial support for Turkey. However the “framework” proposed in the November 16th 2012 submission and expected to be adopted as a permanent part of the UNFCCC system was not accepted. The effort of Turkey to establish its special circumstances is an important step toward its correct positioning. In the next period, the consistent implementation of national climate change policy and strategies and demonstrating that Turkey is a positively contributing country will be important. Furthermore it is also very important to use the resources to be accessed through the COP 18 decision in encouraging technology investment of the private sector which will shoulder the responsibility, and not in some bureaucratic mechanisms.