Issue: 44
The aim of the meeting was not only aligning stakeholders' understanding of project objectives and activities, but also initiating the team-building process for the future multi-stakeholder cooperation in developing Turkey’s National Climate Change Action Plan.
The meeting started with the keynote speech of Chargé d’Affaires of British Embassy in Ankara, Giles Portman, who identified climate change as the biggest challenge of the 21st century. Portman alerted that changing rainfall patterns in Turkey will affect agricultural regions; putting coastal cities, including major tourist sites, at risk from erosion and flooding; adding that the south of Turkey will get noticeably drier in the near future. Portman explained UK’s profound contribution to the process, stating that a new Ministry for Energy and Climate Change has been established to co-ordinate delivery of some tough UK and EU targets and a legally binding national commitment is made in the UK to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. Portman emphasized that climate change is one of the British Government’s top four foreign policy priorities and Turkey is among its priority countries. For this reason, UK is eager to support Turkey’s transition to a low-carbon economy with a new UK-Turkey Climate Change Dialogue launched by UK’s Foreign Secretary last year. Portman concluded his speech with remarks on the British Embassy’s hard work to reduce its own carbon footprint through an Embassy “Greening Strategy” which targets reducing the Embassy’s carbon footprint by 5% by April 2010.
UNDP Resident Representative a.i. Ulrika Richardson-Golinski, began her speech by outlining assisting developing countries with their efforts to cope with the impacts of global climate change and to create more sustainable, less greenhouse gas intensive development paths as an important focus for UNDP. Referencing UNDP’s Human Development Report 2007/2008 on “Fighting Climate Change”, Richardson-Golinski demonstrated the magnitude of the human development problem resulting from climate change. Drawing upon striking examples such as the 1.1 billion people who do not have access to a minimum amount of clean water, she emphasized the importance of long term cooperation, enhanced climate change adaptation and mitigation actions as well as complementary enhanced actions on financing, technology and capacity-building. In addition, Richardson-Golinski claimed that the results of the project will facilitate Turkey’s pro-active participation in the ongoing Copenhagen negotiations. Finally, she underlined the significance of the support provided by UK, as a true representation of international cooperation in the area of climate change combat.
Deputy General Director of the General Directorate of Environmental Management Recep Şahin stated that although Turkey did not make any commitments on cutting green house gas emissions during the First Commitment Period of Kyoto Protocol, it has made considerable efforts in terms of policy, legislation, and institutional structuring. He added that, Turkey activated clean energy resources, took steps in usage of hydroelectric and wind energy potentials, attached importance to energy efficiency and savings, proceeded in cutting pollution sources emissions and spent efforts to achieve aims for elimination of solid wastes and wastewater treatment. Moreover, Şahin explained that Turkey is committed to contribute to the process of tackling climate change.
Concluding his speech by saying that Developing Turkey’s National Climate Change and Action Plan Project aims to introduce low carbon development principles into Turkey’s development policies and plans to build resilience through managing impacts of climate change and encourage mitigation and adaptation through realistic, commitments to international agreements Sahin added that the plan will ensure the efficient involvement of Turkey in international Post-Kyoto process.
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In order to ease the plethora of problems brought about by unemployment a joint programme called Decent Employment for Everyone: Youth Employment Programme in Antalya was recently launched by the UN agencies in partnership with the Turkish Employment Organization.
At the launching event held in mid-July in Antalya, Turkish Employment Organization (ISKUR) General Director Namık Ata highlighted employment policies and projects implemented at the organization while pointing to close ties with the United Nations.
In her speech, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. Ulrika Richardson - Golinski stressed the importance of the issue of youth employment in the progress towards the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) especially given the challenges presented by the ongoing financial crisis. Golinski explained that the programme will specifically target “those who are generally ignored in employment policies, i.e. young women and disadvantaged youth”. One of the main reasons Antalya was chosen as a pilot province was outlined as the city’s excellent stakeholder structure with an operating ISKUR office as well as an active city council.
Reminding the audience that Antalya is the highest migration receiving city, deputy governor Mehmet Seyman emphasized that the most critical consequence of youth employment is the creation of a huge gap between market needs and existing human resources. In addition, Seyman drew attention to the flawless cooperation between ISKUR and non-governmental organizations in Antalya which has made the city become an ideal pilot region for the implementation of the joint programme.
UNDP Poverty Reduction Programme Manager Berna Bayazıt laid out the objectives of the programme in her presentation as follows: to develop an information infrastructure which will increase the recruitment of young women and men by preparing a long-term profession visibility model, providing support to local partners in opening employment opportunities, developing ISKUR’s administrative and technical capacities, taking measures to ensure the participation of new immigrants to the workforce, and determining new sectors for employment.
Following Bayazıt’s presentation, discussions concentrated heavily on contribution and support from local partners. Furthermore, the inclusion of the Akdeniz University Entrepreneurship Center in the programme, the development of employment measures to encompass the disabled and the need for special emphasis on the agricultural sector which largely employs migrant families were also among the issues considered.
Initial steps to develop a National Youth Employment Action Plan within the programme scope have been taken at the launch event. In order to implement this action plan, activities to cultivate employment programmes targeting young women and men from migrant families in Antalya with capacity developing initiatives will be held with the support from all UN agencies involved in the joint programme.
The UN Agencies which will run the initiative together with the Turkish Employment Organization are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
[*] Turkish Statistical Institute Household Laborforce Survey March 2009 Results
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Until then however, embassies in Turkey have decided to come together to introduce and share environmentally friendly practices that they themselves have been using in their day-to-day operations in a meeting organized by the UNDP’s Environment and Sustainable Development Team.
The common practices in greening used at various embassies including the US, the UK, Italy and European Comission Representation fall under the general headings of recycling, energy conservation, using renewable energy sources and raising awarness among embassy employees.
Among the general measures taken to contribute to the environment are increasing the number of recycling bins throughout embassies and placing them in convinient locations around embassy buildings, sticking reminders to switch off lights when they are not in use, recycling cooking oil, heating water with solar panels, and using composts for plants.
Another widespread method implemented by embassies is environmental procurement which involves the purchasing eco-friendly products at the embassy such as energy-efficient light bulbs, degradable bags and environmentally-safe cleaning materials. The British Embassy has even calculated their carbon footprint by determining their energy consumption from utility bills. The newly established green team at the embassy aims to reduce the embassy’s carbon footprint by 5%. The European Commision has adopted the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) which is a management tool for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report and improve their environmental performance. The EC has already taken measures to prevent pollution and ensure the efficient use of office resources such as energy, water and paper and is trying to reduce overall CO2 emissions in the office building as well as in transportation. By stimulating sustainable behavior throughout the office staff with trainings and encouraging greening projects, the EC aims to raise environmental awareness.
Please click here for embassy presentations.
At an informal discussion held after the meeting, representatives from various embassies agreed to call themselves the United Green League – Turkey (UGL-T) and organize field trips to Mamak Solid Waste Management Center and the Ankara river to follow environmental changes in the areas in August. Other outcomes included the embassies calculating their carbon footprint and publishing them on their official websites, introducing the ULG-T initiative to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, municipalities and NGOs.
The ULG-T Initiative aims to encourage networking among embassies on and was started by the UNDP in July 2009. The next meeting will be held at the end of September 2009.
Speaking for Ankara, the basic services have to be provided. Fundemental environment issues such as the quality of air, water and earth are not taken into account and generally disregarded completely.
Even though Ankara is the capital, there is no storage system that can live up to European standards, for instance. There isn’t the slightest attempt at waste management or recycling. Furthermore, air pollution has increased alarmingly in the past few years which is a result of using natural gas. According to a study conducted by Middle East Technical University (METU), air pollution rates have equalled levels in the 90s.
Aside from the above, the Ankara river which is a resource that could be put to good use and potentially become the symbol of Ankara is used like an open sewage. This presents serious health risks for the community.
What do you think can be done?
Environmental issues must be prioritized. All municipalities must place such issues at the top of the agenda. Often, action against environmental problems are taken only when they are unsolvable but municipalities and citizens should act jointly against these problems and their actions should be supported by the whole community.
Restoring the Ankara river back to a free flowing river will be an important symbol of prestige for Ankara. These are simple measures which can be done with a little investment on infrastructure. Municipalites have sufficient funds to afford such measures.
Preserving the natural environment with its naturally occuring characteristics instead of creating recreational parks is another environmental measure that may be taken.
Lastly, we must shy away from the mentality of building concrete jungles.
How much has the EC designated to annual environmental funds to be used in Turkey?
The budget for the environment is around €100 million.
For what types of projects are such funds used?
Around €70 – 80 is used in infrastructure projects. The rest is generally used for technical assistance, education and awareness campaigns.
Finally, what are your thoughts about the initiative? How else can UNDP contribute?
There is no end to environment projects that can be launched in Ankara. By leading this initiative, the UNDP can reinforce embassies to adopt stronger attitudes towards the Ankara administration to do more about the environment.
Social media which is centered around people, offers the opportunity for effective communication and constant mutual connection to large numbers of people who share common interests. This is why the UNDP has increasingly come to rely on social media. Through social media not only can the UNDP spread a human rights culture in online cultural spaces, like social networks, but also utilize the potential for large scale mobilization around global issues. In other words, the new social media has the power to mobilize UNDP values and establish social action networks.
UNDP on Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. The UNDP’s global news updates on Twitter are frequently refreshed and followed by 1,723 subscribers. Followers have the opportunity to click the links at the end of tweets to be directed to the news article.
Please click here to follow UNDP on Twitter.
Become A Fan: UNDP on Facebook
The UNDP has approximately 6,500 fans on Facebook who can comment on UNDP’s recent activity such as Picture This: Caring for the Earth Campaign. Videos and documentaries are also available on UNDP’s facebook page.
The site called Hopenhagen, allows people around the world to create a Twitter-like post (45 characters max) answering the question "What gives you hope for a better planet?"
Hopenhagen is a movement created by the UN together with the International Advertising Association and a coalition of the world's leading advertising, marketing and media agencies to empower global citizens to ensure the world's leaders make the right choices for our planet and our future..
As people post their responses, a constant moving feed runs down the screen, listing all the statements. Although it will take more than 45-character expressions to produce an effective climate treaty, the site advocates that more pressure put on the world's leaders will bring a stronger commitment to significant change.
The Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System (GIVAS) will fill the information gap that currently exists between the point when a global crisis impacts vulnerable populations and when solid quantitative information and analysis reaches decision makers.
The Alert System will track vulnerabilities across multiple dimensions of possible distress. It will focus on tracking vulnerabilities that are caused or exacerbated by external shocks.
The GIVAS will:
The first step towards potential cooperation was taken through a launch event, held in Adana at the end of June. The event was attended by 120 participants, 30% of whom were women, from industrial organizations, NGOs and the government.
In his speech, Chairman of the Adana Chamber of Industry (ADASO) Ümit Özgümüş stressed the need for Turkey to to develop sufficient infrastructure and environmental policies to be compatible with existing EU legislations.
While talking about the project activities, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. Ulrika Richardson-Golinski explained: “the development challenges are just too great for any actor to do it alone and ‘partnership is the key’”. Insinuating the prominence of environmental management, she underlined that businesses do not necessarily have to make a tradeoff between economies and the environment but instead see environmental contribution as a win-win solution. (To view Golinski's full speech, please click here).
During the meeting, industrialists agreed on the necessity of a cleaner environment to enable effective industrial symbiosis. ADASO chairman Özgümüş said that obtaining the ample infrastructure would cost around $60 billion to complete. Such high costs may be reduced with suggestions provided at the conference including designing logical frameworks, applicable business plans, monitoring and evaluating budgets, and preparing working project documents.
Industrial symbiosis is broadly defined as cooperation between two or more parties, resulting in mutual benefits. Currently an unfamiliar business practice in Turkey, examples of industrial symbiosis can be found in Denmark, Sweden and the UK where industrial organizations benefitted from each other’s natural resources, infrastructure and work force. The multitude of advantages in forming industrial relations under the framework of symbiosis include increased resource efficiency, reduced carbon emissions and cost effectiveness. Despite these benefits, hurdles facing mutual industrial activities such as the difficulty of reaching accords are also present. Launched at the end of 2008, Towards an Industrial Symbiosis Programme in Iskenderun Bay Area is run by the UNDP in partnership with the State Planning Organization and executed by the Adana Chamber of Industry (ADASO).
Blooming partnerships
A workshop for industrialists was held the following day with the participation of around 30 industrialists where input/outputs in terms of material, waste, energy, water, wastewater were derived and inter-industry relations were established. Additionally, areas of environmental management, information management, equipment and logistics were also discussed to identify the potential synergies among industries. In addition, other necessary partners which may benefit from such synergies were outlined, highlighting the problems that may arise from potential partnerships.
As a consequence of the workshop, industrialists decisively formed approximately ten partnerships on material/waste exchange, logistics, etc.. Moreover, the participants foresaw the need for a mutual platform of industrialists and important stakeholders in overcoming the problems, that cannot be dealt with by individual industries. The workshop was extended upon their request to discuss the structure of such a platform.
Proving highly fruitful in encouraging networking among the industrialists, the workshop was instrumental in highlighting the existing potentials to form synergies among various industries.
Focusing on the effects of stagnant and partially negative economic growth, the Millennium Development Goals 2009 Report indicates that progress is now threatened resulting in diminished resources, fewer trade opportunities for the developing countries, and possible reductions in aid flows from donor nations. Concurrently, the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent, with a potentially devastating impact on both rich and poor nations.
For instance, in 2009, an estimated 55 million to 90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the crisis. Inadequate progress on child nutrition from 1990 to 2007 is insufficient to meet the 2015 target, and will likely be further affected by increased food prices and economic turmoil. Despite the decrease in international food prices in the second half of 2008, lower prices did not reflect onto affordable food. Furthermore, ongoing crises may also get in the way of progress towards gender equality, as they will inadvertently place new obstacles against women’s employment.
According to the report, the economic hardships will continue to exert pressure on an already fragile global environment, where deforestation and the extinction of species proceed at alarming rates, and a global water crisis is strikingly imminent.
Most importantly however, for many developing countries, lower levels of aid caused by the global financial crises would not only impede further progress, but could reverse some of the gains made so far.
The gloomy picture must not dishearten the global community as the report also portrays the exceptional advances that many countries and regions have made before the economic landscape changed so radically in 2008.
Such accomplishments demonstrate that the goals are within reach at the global level. The report advocates that the vision of a world without poverty which lies at the heart of the MDGs must continue to provide a focus for global efforts.
In order to stay on course, the report puts forth the following:
Achieving the MDGs will require that the development agenda be fully integrated into efforts to jumpstart growth and rebuild the global economy. At the top of the agenda is the climate change problem, which will have to be regarded as an opportunity to develop more efficient ‘green’ technologies and make the structural changes needed that will contribute to sustainable growth. Achieving the MDGs will also require targeting areas and population groups like rural communities, ethnic minorities and who will all help to shape the world’s common future.
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