President Erdoğan spoke at the Climate Summit held as part of the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York. Emphasizing that climate issues are a global concern, Erdoğan stated, “It is essential to establish cooperation among countries on this matter. The UN Secretary-General has invited countries to fight against climate change and take action. In response, Turkey is co-chairing the Infrastructure, Cities, and Local Action Working Group in collaboration with Kenya and UN Habitat. This working group constitutes a critical area where we will see concrete effects of combating climate change in our daily lives. Turkey is aware that successful action against climate change must first take place at the local level.”

"We have promoted the use of natural gas in Turkey"

President Erdoğan continued, “I served as mayor of Istanbul, one of the world's most populous metropolises, for 4.5 years. For the last 17 years, I have served my country as Prime Minister and President. Along with Istanbul, we have promoted the use of natural gas instead of solid fuels in all 81 provinces. Today, Turkey is a leading country in renewable energy in its region. Currently, we meet more than 30% of our electricity from renewable energy sources. We aim to raise the share of renewable energy in electricity production to approximately 39% by 2023. While building energy-efficient cities, we are also reducing disaster risks. In our park projects, we aim to rapidly increase our green spaces and, consequently, our carbon sink capacity.”

President Erdoğan continued his speech as follows:

“We are one of the rare countries that increase forest cover. Over the last 10 years, we have planted over 4 billion saplings. On November 11, we will plant 11 million more saplings. One of our targets for 2023 is to increase our forest area to 30% of our total land. Additionally, we are constructing new metro lines to alleviate traffic problems in our cities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We aim to increase the share of railways in total freight transportation from 5% to 10% and the share in passenger transportation from around 1% to 4%. We will increase the length of our urban rail systems by about 50%, reaching a total of 5,600 kilometers of high-speed train lines. We have realized historic projects like Marmaray and the Eurasia Tunnel. Throughout our country, we have made significant progress in waste management, climate-friendly technology, and energy resource utilization; improving air, water, and soil quality. Through a regulation we implemented, we have reduced plastic bag usage in our country by three-quarters. The Zero Waste Project initiated under my wife’s leadership has been rapidly embraced in all our cities and institutions. We are expanding our Zero Waste Project throughout Turkey. By 2023, we will have transitioned to a zero waste system in approximately 400,000 buildings. We will increase the waste recovery rate from 13% to 35%.”

“We will increase bike paths from 1,000 to 4,000 kilometers by 2023”

President Erdoğan mentioned that bike paths have recently become one of the most important investment areas, stating, "By 2023, we will increase bike paths from 1,000 kilometers to 4,000 kilometers. We are implementing policies aimed at resilience against climate change and disasters without abandoning our development goals. To combat climate change at the local level, we are preparing separate action plans for each geographical region. We have published our action plan for the Black Sea Region and will soon publish plans for other regions.”

Source: Candemir Sarı - İHA