President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the "COP31 Leaders Summit Opening Programme" in Antalya.
Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements are as follows:
I hope that the decisions here will be beneficial, and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the summit. We made great efforts to ensure that the conference was held in the most efficient way. We minimized the environmental impact of COP31. I congratulate everyone who contributed to COP 31, which we hope will be full in every aspect.
"HUMANITY IS EXPERIENCED IN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS"
I hope that the conference will be a new turning point in the fight against the climate crisis. Environmental awareness is one of the common sensitivities of all ancient civilizations and all religions. As humanity, our house has only one roof, which is the sky, and our house has only one garden, which is the earth. We have no other forests, oceans or seas. However, today, humanity is experiencing an existential crisis due to the influence of excessive consumption ambition.
We face serious problems such as global warming, extinction of biodiversity, excessive consumption of natural resources, endangering food security and devastating climate events.
From Asia to the small island states of the Pacific, no country is free from this. We have come a long way since the first COP meeting in Berlin 31 years ago. This success on an intellectual basis could not yield the same result in terms of implementation. The danger increases unless we reach the items targeted in the Paris Agreement. We will either look at the difficulties and complain, or we will hold on to hope and take action.
Türkiye is a country that is the cradle of civilizations with its thousands of years of history. Respect for nature is at the center of our civilization. We are a nation that considers even hurting an ant as a human right. Our ancestors stated that cutting down a healthy tree for no reason is equivalent to killing a person, saying that he who cuts off age cuts off the head. As Türkiye, we look at the issue from this perspective.
"WE WANT TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION, NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM"
We strive to be part of the solution, not the problem, in the fight against climate change. While planning our development goals and energy security, we take environmental factors into consideration down to the smallest detail. We continue our Green Development journey with determination in line with our '2053 Net Zero Emission' target. We preserve every drop of water with the water efficiency campaign we initiated.
While planning our development goals and energy security, we take environmental factors into consideration down to the smallest detail. "We continue our Green Development journey with determination in line with our '2053 Net Zero Emission' target."
Our national recovery rate, which was around 13 percent in 2017 when the Zero Waste movement started, approached 40 percent by the end of 2025. We will continue to work until we reach the zero waste goal. We need to keep in mind that countries that have the least impact on climate change often pay the heaviest price.
Unfortunately, our fight against climate change coincides with a period when the system is dealing with more difficult problems. We are in a period when we need international solidarity even more due to wars, migration and armed conflicts.
"ENVIRONMENTAL MASSACRE HAPPENED IN GAZA"
As I emphasized in my address to the UN General Assembly, not only a genocide but also an ecocide took place in Gaza. Centuries-old olive trees were cut down, soil was polluted, water was polluted, and cities were turned into huge piles of rubble. In the last few days, heartbreaking news has been coming from Gaza again. As a result of the destroyed infrastructure in Gaza, heavy rains and floods, tens of thousands of tents and shelters were flooded. Hundreds of thousands of our Gazan brothers and sisters, especially shivering innocent children, who have no roof to take shelter under, are struggling to survive in the water, in these winter conditions, often without their parents.
No one who sees such a shameful scene for humanity can escape responsibility. Showing strength over the tragedy of Gaza children is weakness, helplessness and dishonesty. Humanitarian aid should be allowed to pass into the region and this oppression should end. Let's give a strong message to the whole world from Antalya.
