Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum answered questions regarding the agenda in the TRT News live broadcast.
In response to the question regarding the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will be hosted by Türkiye, the Institution said that they are struggling hard to bring the COP Presidency to Türkiye.
Explaining that many COPs have been held so far, Kurum said, "I will meet the press with all COP Presidents and share with the whole world the point we have reached so far and the goals we want to achieve from now on. We will make a joint call. This is also very important. We can say that this is the first time in the history of the COP that such a thing is happening." he said.
Minister Kurum stated that the decisions taken in previous meetings were not implemented and continued as follows:
"I also told the young people today that the world no longer expects us to make decisions and speak in the halls. Because at this point, the 1.5 degree target, which we call the 1.5 degree target, seems frankly difficult to achieve. Therefore, we need to be more determined here. When we took the COP Presidency, we said from the first day that 'there will be an implementation COP and we will see the reflections of the decisions we made here on the field.' How will we do it? We determined 10 items on the action agenda. In other words, we have identified 10 items that actually include the decisions taken so far but will turn them into goals. We have identified resilient cities, that is, we will convey our experience in the earthquake zone and share our achievements with the whole world along with the action we took there. We will share the Zero Waste approach with the whole world. "We will share clean energy, which we call energy transformation."
Emphasizing that the implementation of the action agenda and the realization of the commitments were success for them, Kurum said, "The organization will end on November 20 in Antalya, but when it leaves Antalya, the whole world should be able to say, 'Yes, something has changed in Antalya. Turkey, as always, said 'The world is bigger than 5' in diplomacy, and showed its foreign policy in favor of peace, trust and justice, as our President expressed at the United Nations, at COP31, and the date of COP31." It was a milestone, for the history of the COP, for the Framework Convention for the Paris Agreement.' Frankly, we have been fighting for this since day one." he said.
“WE WILL TRANSFER OUR EXPERIENCE IN ZERO WASTE TO THE WHOLE WORLD”
Explaining that Zero Waste is one of the 10 items on the action agenda of COP31, Kurum said that almost everything in the organization is designed to be recycled.
Minister Kurum said, "We will convey the Zero Waste understanding and principle, which is based on recycling throughout the area, and our experience here to the whole world. In other words, we will be explaining zero waste throughout this conference in almost every sector and field, from the deposit application to a blue flag beach or the projects we have done with public gardens." he said.
Stating that they are working in harmony with the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, İbrahim Yumaklı, on water management, Kurum said, "When we consider that water resources will decrease and drought will increase with the effect of climate change, it is also important in terms of food security. In other words, climate change is actually a national security issue on the one hand. That is how important it is. At this point, we are working in harmony with our relevant ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture. We are working very harmoniously and efficiently in terms of both sustainable agricultural practices and water security and food security in our city." made his statements.
“WE WILL TRANSFER RESILIENT CITIES TO THE WHOLE WORLD”
Pointing out that Türkiye suffered great pain in the February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, Kurum stated that 14 million citizens were affected by the "disaster of the century".
Reminding that they completed 455 thousand houses in 11 provinces in a short period of two years and delivered them to their rightful owners, Kurum said:
"All of these residences have been prepared with a sustainable approach, we have adopted Zero Waste and built them as cities that produce their own energy, use renewable energy, have thermally insulated buildings, and are resistant to earthquakes and disasters. We will transfer this experience to the whole world. In other words, we will transfer the knowledge, coordination, financial management and will here to the whole world.
It is very important to convey this experience, we have experienced this pain, we do not want other countries to experience this pain. That's why we always say 'urban transformation, earthquake transformation'. We need to make our cities resilient so that people do not experience this pain. In this sense, we use less energy and there is less damage to our property and lives after disasters. That's why we will convey resilient cities to the whole world in an organization that will be attended by leaders on November 11."
