President Erdogan champions sustainability: Türkiye’s path to zero waste, green energy by 2053

Türkiye is making significant strides in transforming key sectors of its economy to align with its ambitious goal of achieving "zero waste" and environmentally sustainable development by 2053, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at COP29 in Baku.

Erdogan highlighted the success of Türkiye's "zero waste" initiative, which has played a key role in the country’s efforts to combat climate change, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

"Since the launch of the project, we have prevented the release of 5.9 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," he said.

As part of its national energy efficiency action plan for 2024-2030, Türkiye aims to cut emissions by the equivalent of 100 million tons of carbon dioxide.

"By 2035, we plan to increase our installed wind and solar power capacity from 31,000 megawatts to 120,000 megawatts," Erdogan announced.

Additionally, the country aims to achieve a nuclear energy capacity of 20,000 megawatts by 2050.

Erdogan also revealed that Türkiye has put forward its candidacy to host the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in 2026.

The Summit of World Leaders is taking place in Baku as part of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The event, hosted by Azerbaijan, brought together heads of state and government, as well as representatives from delegations worldwide, to address urgent global climate challenges.

COP29 is taking place from November 11 to 22 at Baku Olympic Stadium. This marks Azerbaijan's largest event to date and the first of its kind to be hosted by the country. As part of the preparations, a "Host Country Agreement" and other key documents were signed between the Azerbaijani government and the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

One of the key highlights of COP29 is the World Leaders’ Summit on Climate Action, which will be held on November 12-13.

A major expectation for COP29 is to reach an agreement on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) related to climate finance. This goal is seen as essential for driving global climate action.

The COP29 presidency has proposed 14 key initiatives that address the intersection of climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These initiatives include projects related to green energy corridors, green energy storage, enhancing climate resilience, clean hydrogen, methane reduction from organic waste, and the development of green digital technologies, among others. One of the key proposals is the creation of a Climate Finance Action Fund.

In addition to prioritizing climate finance—an issue that unites countries—these initiatives are also aimed at helping meet the critical goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

By Vafa Guliyeva