Essay on Turkey's Energy

Turkey's Actions on Contribution to Combatting Climate Change

Turkey is a rapidly growing MEDC, situated between Europe and Asia, which has several different energy resources. It has a young, urbanizing and increasing population, and therefore supplying the country with the sufficient energy is one of the government's main concerns. Even though there is no specific strategy, on how to do this, there is an energy policy. The energy policy consists of Security of Supply, Market Reform, and Environmental Protection. This research task will mainly be concentrating on the Environmental Protection.

In 2008, Turkey's total primary energy supply was 99 million tones of oil equivalent (Mtoe). Out of this amount, fossil fuels accounted for 90%, where as the remaining 10% was provided through renewable energy sources. When it comes to demand, in 2008, Turkey's total final consumption of energy was 74 Mtoe. The largest users of energy were industry and residential sector, both of which accounted for approximately 30% of the final figure, followed by 20% by the transport sector and close to 20% by other sectors, including the service sector.

Given its priority on economic development, Turkey has paid less attention to environmental protection within the overall framework of its energy policy. However, there has been some significant developments, which can be summarized as follows:

Climate Change:

Turkey has become a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2004 and also finally joined the Kyoto Protocol in August 2009. The UNFCCC is an international treaty, which was signed by 189 countries at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, in 1992. The treaty considers 'what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with the inevitable increases in temperature'. The Kyoto Protocol is 'an international agreement linked to the UNFCCC… It requires developed countries to reduce there GHG below levels specified for each of them in...