Turkey's efforts to support green development will greatly benefit not only the country but the region and the rest of the globe, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Turkey Alvaro Rodriguez said Tuesday.
The country's first climate council shows it takes climate change seriously, said Rodriguez in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency (AA).
"We also must remember Turkey has ratified the Paris Agreement and it will open the door for this very important G-20 country to undertake a wide range of activities to address climate change," he explained.
The country may have signed and ratified the Paris Agreement just last year, but it has been engaged in climate mitigation and adaptation for decades, he underlined.
According to Rodrigez, of the two issues that affect Turkey, one is more internal, namely the dependence on fossil fuels, and particularly coal.
"I think that needs to change," he said.
Saying that climate-related crisis might have a negative impact on the country, he added, "Turkey also sits in a very interesting neighborhood with many neighboring countries and is in a sense a hub for many migration flows."
He said, "it is very likely" the country will be impacted by these migration flows in the years and decades to come.
Climate diplomacy emerges as important topic
He also noted that climate change is one of the areas that has changed the priorities of the multilateral system dramatically, therefore, impacting the work that the United Nations does worldwide.
"One area, for example, that greatly concerns us is the fact that wild population movements for internally displaced people and refugees have traditionally been the result of conflict," he added.
Now we see people moving because of climatic emergencies, and "we expect that in the next couple of decades, a quarter of a billion people will probably be moving between them within countries to try and find a better livelihood better opportunities for their children."
"So I think what some called climate diplomacy will certainly become a much more important topic in the years to come," he concluded.
Turkey's first climate council kicked off in the central province of Konya with the aim of establishing a road map in line with the Paris Agreement to reach net-zero emissions by 2053.
The Climate Law, the National Contribution Statement and the Long-Term Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan will be completed with the decisions made at the end of the council meeting.
The country is also expected to submit its updated nationally determined contributions at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27), which will take place in Egypt this year, where green financing will be among the main topics.
A climate law, which is set for completion this year, is regarded as another milestone in the fight against climate change.