Business

Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources: “Turkey is at a very advanced point in renewable energy”

Alparslan Bayraktar, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, stated that 43% of electricity production was provided from renewable resources last year, and said, “Electricity generation from renewable resources is between 17% and 36% in leading countries in this field such as the USA, China, Germany and the United Kingdom. Therefore, we are at a very advanced point in renewable energy.”

Alparslan Bayraktar, at the meeting titled “Net Zero Emissions Future in the World and in Europe and Its Effects on Turkey” organized digitally by Sabanci University Istanbul International Energy and Climate Center (IICEC), said that although Turkey does not ratify the Paris Agreement, it is trying to fulfill the requirements of the agreement as a developing country.

Bayraktar stated that Turkey’s position in the Paris Agreement is not fair. “In the Paris Agreement, half of the world’s top 10 emitting countries are in the developing country group, but unfortunately, Turkey is in the developed country group within the scope of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention, which the Paris Agreement references. Another UN report on the global economic outlook defines Turkey as a developing country. A UN report says this, but the situation in the framework agreement is different. Therefore, we see that this is an approach beyond the scientific and technical point of view, and it is a situation that is in serious contradiction with the basic principle of equity.”

Stating that 53% of Turkey’s total installed power in electricity consists of renewable energy sources, Bayraktar said, “43% of electricity production was provided from these sources last year. Electricity generation from renewable sources is between 17% and 36% in leading countries such as the USA, China, Germany and the United Kingdom. Therefore, we are quite advanced in renewable energy. In 2020, we were able to prevent about 73 million tons of carbon emissions with renewable electricity generation.”

“THE ECONOMIC BILL OF ENERGY TRANSFORMATION IS HUGE”

Stating that Turkey’s determination to use its renewable energy potential at the highest level continues, Bayraktar said that with efficiency studies, approximately 32 million tons of oil equivalent reduction was achieved in primary energy intensity.

Pointing out that this way, it is possible to avoid 100 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, Bayraktar said, “We have prevented approximately 10 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions with energy efficiency investments in 2017-2020.”

On the other hand, Bayraktar stated that Turkey is a growing country and that all this activity also increases its gas emissions.

“Unfortunately, Turkey has very serious difficulties in terms of absolute emission reduction in the short and medium-term and a target in this sense does not seem very possible. In the economic dimension of this, for example, we are talking about a ₺46 billion renewable energy support in 2020. Between 2017 and 2020, the investment in energy efficiency is close to $5 billion. When we look at these figures, we also see how big the bill of energy transformation is. The International Energy Agency says that to reach the zero-emissions target by 2050, an annual investment of $5 trillion is needed. If we take Turkey’s place in the world economy as 1%, this means that Turkey realizes approximately $45-50 billion of $5 trillion annually.

THE PATH TO ZERO EMISSIONS IS DIFFICULT BUT IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE

Fatih Birol, President of the International Energy Agency, said that climate change is the main agenda item of all countries and that many companies in the world are investing in clean energy because it is more profitable.

Stating that almost all of the world’s leading economies are committed to zero emissions, Birol said, “There are also those who enact these commitments. These ambitious commitments are very important, but how we will achieve them is also important. In this context, the road to zero emissions is quite narrow and difficult, but not impossible.”

Birol emphasized that around $2 trillion is invested in the energy sector in the world every year and this amount must increase to $5 trillion in order to reach the zero-emission target.

Noting that new technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen need to develop rapidly as well as existing clean energy technologies, Birol said, “This is a very strong wave coming from the bottom and all countries, we will all be affected by it.”

Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button