Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar made evaluations regarding the COP31 process. Explaining that they increased the number of deep-sea drilling ships to 6, Bayraktar said, "We will start oil-targeted drilling in the Western Black Sea soon."
Minister Bayraktar made evaluations about the agenda in the television program he attended. Explaining the outline of the work that Türkiye will put forward before COP31, Bayraktar said, "The message that Türkiye wants to give to the world at COP31 will be: 'Let's move from commitment to action.' We need to take action so that we can limit these emissions and meet the target related to climate change."
I think that COP31 will be very successful in Antalya and will be important for both Türkiye and the world climate struggle. I hope that important evaluations and important decisions will be taken around this metaphor of 'Let's move from commitment to action, let's take action' put forward by Türkiye. Under the leadership of our President, heads of state, heads of government and ministers of many countries will be here. We are expecting 100 thousand people. "The eyes of the whole world will be here on November 9-20," he said.
Emphasizing that one of the most important messages they will give to the world at COP31 will be electrification, Minister Bayraktar said, "One of the elements we have put forward very assertively is the 35 percent electrification target in 2035. If we achieve this, this will be a really important output. We must clearly say that the future is the age of electricity."
We believe that electrification is also important in the world's fight against climate change, and as Türkiye, we are preparing our energy vision and plans according to the new electricity world. We are working on the 2040 Turkish National Energy Plan and we want to announce it to Türkiye and the world, probably before COP31, that is, at the end of October, the first week of November, before COP31 starts. We put electrification at the center of this new strategy.
To do this, Türkiye has very ambitious targets in renewable energy, we have set a target of 120 thousand megawatts for 2035. We will set a bigger goal in 2040. Türkiye needs to use its energy efficiently. "We are now working on 20 billion dollars of energy efficiency projects until 2030 as Türkiye's national energy efficiency action plan for after 2030, and we will set a more ambitious target," he said.
Bayraktar said, "In Türkiye, we are talking about an electrification rate of approximately 29 percent in our industry and 22-23 percent in buildings, but one of our main game-changing areas will be transportation. In our national energy plan, we will say the following: There should be at least 7 to 10 million electric vehicles on Türkiye's roads in 2035."
Our municipalities' buses should turn into electric. A significant portion of the individual vehicles we use must be converted to electric so that Türkiye's oil demand can come down a little and we can become a country that reduces emissions and ends our foreign dependency with this electrification. It requires a huge investment. Our estimates are an investment of over 200 billion dollars.
When you look at the potential, it seems that 70 percent of the total capacity will belong to solar and 30 percent to wind. It is not possible for us to choose one over the other, we need both. Renewable space is a must for us. "We will invest in solar and wind as much as we can," he said.
Pointing out that one of the new steps is hydraulic power plants with storage, Minister Bayraktar said, "We have a goal related to pumped storage, where water is pumped back to the source in our hydraulic power plants, you pump it using that water at cheap hours and send it up again, and then you produce electricity again when electricity is more affordable, when there are better prices."
We are now nearing the end of electricity production from the first reactor in Akkuyu. We are currently in the testing phase. Our goal is to start the physical operation of the power plant by the end of this year. In addition, our negotiations for the Sinop and Trakya power plants continue. Our ongoing work with Canada on this issue has been progressing rapidly, especially recently. I hope we will see a clearer picture there in the coming months. We look at both; The Sinop field is a bit more ready, but essentially our priority in terms of electricity is in Thrace.
It is necessary to do Thrace a little earlier. Our field work continues there, too. "We have talks with China, Russia has a significant interest, and our negotiations with South Korea continue in this sense," he said.
On the other hand, Bayraktar said that they increased the number of deep-sea drilling ships to 6 and said, "One of them is currently working in Somalia. In addition to the production development program, another one is in the Black Sea; It is conducting new drillings in the fields we have identified in the Western Black Sea, Central Black Sea and Eastern Black Sea.
We will start drilling targeting oil in the coming days. This is a difficult drilling that will take some time. We will soon start oil-targeted drilling in the Western Black Sea. In addition, the project that we intend to develop, to bring Qatar gas to Türkiye and some of it to Europe via Turkey, is one of the issues that will make a significant contribution to the world's gas supply.
Qatar gas requires a pipeline of approximately 2,000-2,200 kilometers. Of course, the financing and technical solution construction part of the work is very important, but political will and political stance were required to realize TANAP and TAP. This was put forward with the contribution of our President, Mr. Aliyev and other countries, and with the support of the European Union. So, first of all, a political will must be formed.
We need to create it similarly for Qatar. Countries need to believe this. The stance of Qatar, Türkiye and the European Union on this issue is also important. Everyone is looking for an alternative. I this time; "I see it as a period when the crisis can turn into an opportunity and new projects will be implemented along with this crisis," he said.
