Turkish business leaders ready to act on low-carbon economy

“We need to change TÜSİAD to TÜÇİİD,” said Nusret Cömert, deputy head of the energy working group of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD). He said imagining a TÜÇİİD, a Turkish Environmentalist Industrialists and Businesspeople's Association, is not so hard considering the scientific evidence.

The scientific evidence he is referring to shows that extreme weather events around the world caused by increasing greenhouse gas emissions has led to big financial losses. While the economic losses attributed to natural disasters were about $75.5 billion in the 1960s, they reached $659.9 billion in the 1990s. Those losses could reach as much as 20 percent of the net global output by 2020. On the other hand, if measures which will cost only two percent of the net global output are to be taken today, the trend could be reversed. In other words, there is a need to spend about 2 percent of world's gross domestic product (GDP) to keep global warming at 2 degrees Celsius to prevent the extinction of some species and mammals, vital for life on earth.

“So fighting climate change is not only due to environmental sensibilities, it also makes sense in terms of finance and the economy,” said Cömert, who spoke on Monday at the “Constructing a Low-Carbon Future” conference organized by the Climate Platform which was recently established by TÜSİAD and the Regional Environmental Center's (REC) Turkey Country Office.

“Yes, we need to grow by at least five percent every year, but business as usual is not ethical considering climate change,” Cömert said, asking, “So what can we do?”

One of his suggestions is to have a chief negotiator to work with the business world, environmental groups and the government so as to streamline communication in order to discuss and implement steps in that regard.

Questions regarding adaptation to a low-carbon economy came from Murat Sungur Bursa, CEO of the Zorlu Energy Group.

“Even if the whole business community decided to make transition to a low-carbon economy, there needs to be a holistic approach to create change. Somebody should undertake costs,” he said.

Therefore, he added the challenge is how to achieve growth and adaptation to low-carbon economy at the same time pointing out that policies need to catch up.

Environment Ministry Undersecretary Hasan Sarıkaya who carefully listened to the discussion said that Turkey cannot stay outside in transition to low carbon economy.

“Staying outside of this development is a big risk for Turkey,” he said and mentioned a number of projects to combat climate change, and one of them is a low-carbon development strategy.

He also added that neither the private sector should wait for change of demands by consumers, nor consumers do the same and wait for new technology products from producers.

“Actually, those two should trigger each other. Both industry and environment can win,” he said.

‘No capitalism without nature’s capital’

According to a recent study conducted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 75 percent of all investments to be made for combating climate change are expected to be covered by the private sector.

Answering Today’s Zaman’s questions from Ankara, Haluk Özdalga, chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s Environment Commission, said that it is so pleasing that the Turkish business community reached that point regarding TÜSİAD’s acceptance of a low-carbon economy model.

“It’s also good that they have demands from the government because that is the direction Turkey should go both for the interest of the country and industry. And we are working on the issue of Turkey’s emissions reduction strategies including carbon regulations,” he said.

On Monday’s conference, it was Sandrine Dixson- Declève, director the Prince of Wales’s EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change based at Cambridge University, who gave an international perspective for the Turkish businesses.

She told that business leaders lobbied in the United Kingdom and in the European Union to prevent climate change.

“The UK and the EU corporate leaders group had a signature campaign for the recent Copenhagen summit. They were the largest business voice saying that economic development will not be sustained in the longer term unless the climate is stabilized,” she said.

She reminded what The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales said: “There will be no capitalism without nature’s capital.”

What businesses need in the process, she said is that clear, long-term policy and market signals, in addition to scientific evidence for action.

“And new policies and business leadership are needed even more so in the post-Copenhagen period,” she added considering that the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December fell short of many nations’ hopes for a treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions. More than 190 nations will reconvene in Cancun, Mexico, later this year for another attempt to reach a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which sets emissions targets for industrial countries and expires in 2012.

Participants also agreed that a holistic approach is needed to tackle the problem of climate change, and inclusion of the civil society organizations is crucial in that regard.

“Of course, business community alone cannot tackle the climate change,” said Tanay Sıdkı Uyar, director of Marmara University’s New Technologies Research and Application Center and coordinator of TÜRÇEP, an environmental civil society platform.

Uyar, who was invited to the conference but was unable to attend, told Today’s Zaman that renewable energy development can be achieved only with interaction with the public and civil society,.

“Turkey does not have to repeat the mistakes of the European Union,” he said. “Turkey can plan its future now and it does not have to adapt old technologies of industrialized countries.”

He also said that they are ready to share the “Long-term strategic decision making support system,” that they developed at Marmara University to support policies to be taken in the triangle of energy, economy and environment.