{"id":11464,"date":"2022-12-05T10:59:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T10:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/2022\/12\/ea\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T22:01:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T19:01:19","slug":"green-option-in-turkeys-international-energy-policies-emel-akcali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2022\/12\/green-option-in-turkeys-international-energy-policies-emel-akcali\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Option in Turkey\u2019s International Energy Policies – Emel Ak\u00e7al\u0131"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Average temperatures in Turkey, just like anywhere else\nin the Mediterranean, have been rising and will\ncontinue to do so over the coming years. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean region also\nwarms 20 percent faster than the rest of the world. This results in floods,\nheatwaves, droughts, desertification, and food shortages, leading to massive\nmigration and impacting the lives of 1\/3 of the population in the region.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey is an\nemerging economy with an increasing need for energy. At the same time, it has a\ngreat potential for renewable energy due to its geographical location, the primary\nrenewable energy sources being biomass, wind, hydroelectric, solar, waves, and\ngeothermal. Ankara\u2019s total energy capacity from renewables has increased\nsteadily over the last decade, reaching 49,398\nmegawatts by 2020<\/a>. According to\nstate media<\/a>, Turkey\u2019s green energy investments\nhave reached $66 billion, with renewables constituting over 53 percent of the\ncountry\u2019s total installed power capacity in September 2021. Despite market\nlogic’s growing role over climate policy and rising trends of state control over\nrenewable energy sectors, Turkey\u2019s\nnationally determined contributions to the Paris Climate Agreement are said to\nreach the target of 26 GW of solar and wind power by 2030. While all\nthese promising developments are taking place, fierce competition for the\nextraction of fossil fuels, namely natural gas, is also continuing and, at\ntimes, even escalating pre-existing tensions with the neighbouring countries in\nthe Mediterranean.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite offshore hydrocarbon discovery\nambitions, Turkey needs to deal with climate change and marine protection\nissues in its energy diplomacy in the Southeastern Mediterranean due to its\ncommitments to the European Green Deal proposal by the EU Commission. In April\n2021, the Council of the EU highlighted, for instance, the concept of the Blue Economy<\/a>,\nthe need for more sustainability in oceans and seas which are the largest\necosystems in the world and which need to be in good ecological and chemical\nconditions in order to develop their economic and social potential.  The Council of EU further underlined \u201cthe\nimportance of supporting measures to conserve, protect, restore and sustainably\nuse the rich biodiversity of the Mediterranean basin, a unique center of diversification\nfor fauna and flora species, of ensuring sustainable resource management,\nincluding water, and strengthening sustainable food systems.\u201d The Blue Economy\nurges the Mediterranean countries to cooperate and mitigate geopolitical\ntensions and risks before these result in long-term irrevocable hot conflicts\nin the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a candidate\ncountry, Turkey, therefore, published its National Renewable Action Plan in\n2014 and National Efficiency Action Plan in 2017 and adopted the goal of\nachieving a 30 percent share of renewable energy in the electricity generation\nmix and 10 percent of renewable energy in the transportation sector by 2023. In\nOctober 2021, Turkey finally ratified the Paris Agreement and set a goal to\nachieve net zero carbon status by 2053 by updating its emission targets in\ndifferent areas, such as manufacturing, energy, waste, transportation,\nagriculture, etc. Despite Turkey\u2019s abundant renewable resources, the share of\nrenewables in total final energy consumption and the transportation sector was\n11.9 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, in 2018. While renewable energy\nsources constituted 44 percent of total electricity generation, hydropower\nconstituted 29.2 percent of total electricity generation in 2021. The share of\nnon-hydro renewables in electricity generation was 14.7 percent in 2019 (wind\nat 7.2 percent, solar at 3.5 percent, geothermal at 2.9 percent, and bioenergy\nat 1.1 percent). It is argued<\/a>\nthat Turkey’s low level of renewable energy development is related to several\nfactors, including \u201ca state-dominated energy market, politicized and weak\nbureaucracy, opportunistic developers, limited civil society activism, and\ncomplicated relations with neighboring countries\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are still\npromising developments toward renewable energy transition in Turkey, however. Turkish engineers have created a ship<\/a> that uses \u201cGreen Hydrogen\u201d, for instance, and is scheduled to debut in\n2025. The vessel will employ\ngreen hydrogen as a fuel for the first time in history, in addition to solar\nand wind power. There won\u2019t be any asbestos in this ship, which is used on other\nships and negatively impacts marine life. The International Maritime Organization\u2019s\n2050 standards were said to be exceeded by the green ship design. On this ship, wind energy is also utilized as a novel model for\nrenewable energy for the first time. Furthermore, Turkey\u2019s budding EV (Electric Vehicle) manufacturer\nTOGG has taken a critical step toward a serial production. TOGG released its first\ntest electric cars straight off the lines in the Gemlik Industrial Zone,\nsoutheast of Istanbul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the\nglobal push toward green energy and the vast potential of solar and wind energy\nresources in the Mediterranean region, Turkey and neighboring countries should\naim to develop solar and wind electricity generation technologies to prevent\ncross-border conflicts and promote environmental peace-making in the\nSoutheastern Mediterranean. Turkey can easily take the lead in this endeavour\nwith its potential, political will, and elite orientation. To this end, Turkey,\nas well as the EU and regional countries, should re-consider the impact of\ntheir neoliberal and hybrid green energy policies on their current green\nimagination, democratize their green transformation space, rescue it from the\ndomain of (rentier) business interests only, and be more inclusive of ordinary\ncitizens directly affected by these transformations and environmental activists.\nSuch a move would create more progressive policy orientations, which would have\na more considerable potential of enabling environmental cooperation between the\ncountries of the Southeastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emel Ak\u00e7al\u0131<\/strong> is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Prior to coming to Kadir Has, she was a senior lecturer at the IR department of Swansea University in the UK, and assistant professor at the IR Department of Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her research interests span environmental geopolitics, critical security, global IR theory, state, society, religion, gender and politics in the Middle East and North Africa, neoliberal governmentality outside of the Western realm and non-Western and alternative geopolitical discourses. She has been awarded the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies in Germany (SWP) grant on \u201cEnvironmental Geopolitics in the southern Mediterranean: The potential for cooperation between Turkey, Egypt and Israel\u201d, British Institute at Ankara grant in 2018 \u2013 2019 to work on the economic contribution of Syrian refuges to Turkey, IMERA Aix Marseille University Institute for Advanced Study and CEU Institute of Advanced Study resident fellowships for world class scholars on her ongoing research on the challenges of state and societal transformation in post-revolutionary Tunisia. She is the author of Chypre: un enjeu g\u00e9opolique actuel? (Cyprus, a geopolitical stake?) published by l\u2019Harmattan in 2009, and edited a volume on Neoliberal Governmentality and the Future of the State in the Middle East and North Africa, published by Palgrave in 2015. Her articles have been published in Political Geography, Journal of International Relations and Development, Environmental and Planning and Development, South European Society and Politics, Security Dialogue, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Antipode, Annals of the American Geographers, Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Geopolitics.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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To cite this work: <\/strong> Emel Ak\u00e7al\u0131, \u201cGreen Option in Turkey\u2019s International Energy Policies” Panorama, Online, 05 December 2022, https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/blog\/2022\/12\/05\/ea\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article has been prepared with the support provided to the International Relations Council<\/a> and the Global Academy<\/a> by the Heinrich B\u00f6ll Stiftung Association Turkey Representative within the scope of the project titled ‘Foreign Policy for the 21st Century; Peaceful, Equitable, and Dynamic Turkey’.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright@UIKPanorama. All on-line and print rights reserved. Opinions expressed in works published by the Panorama belongs to the authors alone unless otherwise stated, and do not imply endorsement by the IRCT, Global Academy, or the Editors\/Editorial Board of Panorama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Average temperatures in Turkey, just like anywhere else in the Mediterranean, have been rising and will continue to do so over the coming years. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean region also warms 20 percent faster than the rest of the world. This results in floods, heatwaves, droughts, desertification, and food shortages, leading to massive migration and impacting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":9731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,486,508],"tags":[608,656,713,650],"class_list":["post-11464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-100-years-of-the-republic","category-opinion","category-turkey","tag-energy-environment-resources","tag-english","tag-heinrich-boll-foundation","tag-turkiye"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}