Iremcon News

“WE MUST BENEFIT FROM TECHNOLOGIES FOR A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT”

Mr. Sadulla Duraku, Minister of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Fatmir Matoshi, Kosovo Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpınar, Deputy Minister of Environment and Urbanization, attended the IREMCON International Environment Conference held on March 28-29, 2019.

 

Delegates from 14 countries attended the 3rd IREMCON International Environment Conference that is supported by the TR Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and continuously raises the bar for success in the field of environmental management and makes important strides in waste financing, boosting the recycling economy.

 

Mr. Sadulla Duraki, Minister of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of North Macedonia, says, “I hope such events will contribute greatly to the capacity building of our countries with a view to protecting our environment, especially in waste management and reducing climate change and these contributions continue in the years to come.”

 

Mr. Fatmir Matoshi, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning of Kosovo, said, “For our government, the environment is one of our top priorities. It is extremely important for us to be here and have the opportunity to examine the most advanced technologies up close.

 

We should benefit from these technologies for a clean environment.” Mr. Muhammet Ecel, General Director of Environmental Management, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Mr. Cristian Rocke, Exhibition Group Director IFAT, Mr. Mustafa Akalp, Chairman of the Executive Board of the 3rd IREMCON also attended the conference.

 

Mr. Muhammet Ecel, General Director of Environmental Management, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, said in his speech at the conference, “On behalf of my country, institution and me, I welcome you to the 3rd IREMCON International Conference on Environment and greet you all with respect. Following the Industrial Revolution, the environment was greatly devastated by humans. In particular, excessive consumption caused irreparable damage to the environment and disrupted the balance of the ecosystem. Climate change due to global warming constitutes a major problem threatening the future of the world. When we observe the Earth from the space, it has no borders. Likewise, natural disasters and environmental disasters due to climate change have no boundaries. In that case, we must remove the barriers before cooperation opportunities for the environment and climate.

 

To this end, we should first change our perspective and benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience because we must act together to overcome the problems resulting from the climate change. A supra-political understanding and broad participation is required for successful international cooperation in the fight against climate change. Climate change threatens the future of our world and our children. I travelled to various countries and gave numerous conferences and I always noticed this in those places: Even though their countries, religions, cultures and languages are different, children always smile in the same language! This has always fascinated me.

 

This common language of children provides us with a fundamental basis to act with a common language in our fight against the climate change. We need a common understanding that should always be kept in view! As our children laugh in the same language and face the same threats, it is our duty to take immediate action to eliminate these threats. The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals the urgency of tackling climate change. Global average temperatures break a new record every year.

 

Disasters such as floods, hails, storms, drought and long-term forest fires now occur more frequently. We witness extreme weather events both in the world and in Turkey. For example, the damage caused by the 20-minute hail in Istanbul in 2017 was $225 million. Given the waste sector, it is evident that the waste sector has a significant impact on climate change as one of the main sectors causing methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The waste sector has the highest share in the total greenhouse gas emission, following the energy sector. Waste management is one of the major problems of the current world and waste is a valuable raw material.

 

This raw material should be brought into the economy. In our country, where 31 million tons of municipal waste is generated annually, the current recovery rate has been increased to 13%. Our target is to increase this rate to at least 35% in 2023. In 2003, only 1 incineration plant using waste as an energy source existed. Today this numbered reached to 66, comprising of 14 incineration and 42 co-incineration plants. In 2018, nearly 800,000 tons of waste was used for energy recovery in plants such as cement factories, and 3.2 million tons of waste was used as alternative raw materials.

 

The number of solid waste landfills in our country was 15 in 2002 and we currently serve 82% of our population with 88 solid waste landfills. Our target for 2023 is to ensure that the whole country benefits from this service. We have adopted a new holistic approach toward waste management. Using this approach, we aim to use resources more efficiently, prevent waste and reduce the amount of waste produced with consumption at minimum levels, sort and collect wastes separately at source, recycle the separately collected wastes, convert organic wastes into compost and fertilizer and briefly, to reach ‘zero waste’ within the scope of the circular economy approach by eliminating the need to send wastes to storage and incineration. Thus, we implement the Zero Waste project in our buildings, especially in the Ministry and the Presidential Complex. Our target is to expand this project, which was launched under the auspices of Mrs. Emine ERDOĞAN, across Turkey by 2023. Since June 2017, we have implemented it in 14,750 public institutions and organizations. Based on this project, we prevented the release of 500 million kg of greenhouse gas emissions and saved 42 million trees simply in 20 months.

 

Last year, our Ministry provided training to approximately 300,000 people to raise awareness about zero waste. A zero-waste system was established at Istanbul New Airport, one of the largest investments in our country. The amendment to the Environmental Law, which includes the charging plastic bags and deposit refund system for beverage packages, was enacted. Plastic bags started to be charged at sales points as of 1/1/2019 in order to prevent the negative impact of plastic bags and reduce their use. As of January 01, 2021, we launched deposit refund system for beverage packages. Our goal is to continue our activities on climate change increasingly to the extent of the opportunities and international support we will receive. At the state of the Republic of Turkey, we drew our roadmap in the fight against the global climate change to contribute to these efforts. As a rapidly developing economy, we aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from an increase of up to 21% by 2030. We also benefit from new and clean technologies and make more use of renewable energy sources.

 

In Turkey, the renewable energy accounts for 45% in the installed power capacity. With our application ‘the Renewable Energy Resource Areas’, we provide favorable conditions for large-scale investments. We also took important steps in energy efficiency and prepared the Energy Efficiency Action Plan. We saved approximately 41.5 million tons of oil equivalent in the last 15 years. According to OECD data, we are among the top 10 countries in indirect taxes on fossil fuels. In this sense, we contribute to climate sustainability. We save time, reduce distances and our emissions with investments in the transport sector. In our rapidly industrializing country, we endeavor to make transition to a resource- and energy-efficient industry based on green production. Based on industrial plants, we monitor, report and verify more than half of our greenhouse gas emissions. With the awareness that forests are important sink areas, we aim to increase forest cover in our country to 30% by 2023. The success in combating climate change depends on the inclusion of all segments of society in these efforts. Accordingly, we support local administrations, non-governmental organizations and universities. It is essential to implement high-cost investments first in order to prevent environmental pollution and protect the environment.

 

We observe that environmental investments in our country gained momentum both in the public and private sectors in the 2000s. The technical and financial assistance provided by our Ministry is crucial in solving environmental problems in our country. This is a key indicator that the central government is not only a rule maker, but also a solution partner for the parties responsible for eliminating environmental problems. At this current phase, it is evident that significant progress has been made in the field of waste management in our country. Our industry, which develops techniques and technologies that is right for the type of waste and applicable in the field of recycling and waste management, is evolving with each single day.

 

I would like to express that we are equipped and organized for regional and international cooperation and exchange of experience in the fields of waste management and combating climate change, where we have a big potential and experience. However, our requests must be accepted under the international climate regime in order to enable us to combat climate change more effectively. In this context, our country should have a fair position under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Our long-standing efforts toward this goal will continue at the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25).

 

We believe in the importance of global cooperation in waste management and combating climate change. At Turkey, we are always open to share our experiences. Before concluding my speech, I would like to thank all of you, especially the esteemed delegates who came from abroad and participated in our Conference, and offer my respects.”