What is the status of climate protection in the host country Türkiye?

The Turkish pop singer Tarkan has released a new song especially for the UN climate conference in Antalya. It's about climate and the environment, this time in English. Programmatic title: "Wake Up". More people should work to solve the climate crisis, writes Tarkan on social media. If everyone worked together, anything was possible.

Turkey is working with Australia at the climate conference. Turkey as host, Australia as negotiator. The Turkish Environment Minister and COP President Murat Kurum sets a focus in advance: electrification. "We want to increase the share of electricity in global final energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035."

COP President has been cautious so far

The idea is that a more electrified everyday life, from traffic to buildings to industry, means fewer emissions. Environmental associations point out that the electricity used for this must come from renewable energies and not from fossil fuels.

COP President Kurum is still cautious about this. The declared will to move away from fossil fuels will only gain concrete significance if we succeed in implementing the electrification target of 35 percent by 2035.

The most important energy source in Turkey: coal

The share of solar and wind energy in electricity generation is growing in Türkiye. However, the most important energy source is still coal, accounting for a third.

There is currently a lack of political will for a real farewell to fossil fuels in Turkey, says Ümit Sahin, climate scientist at the Istanbul Policy Center, in the Turkish media. "The most important reason why Turkey's climate policy is so weak is coal. That's where the knot lies. As soon as this coal knot is solved, Turkish climate policy will change suddenly."

The energy plan is currently only a declaration of intent

Just in time - a few days before the start of the COP - Turkey published a new energy plan. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar presented the ambitious goals in Istanbul: "Our energy plan plans to increase the share of renewable energies to 77 percent by 2040. The level of electrification is to be increased to 36 percent. These measures are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall by 40 percent."

How realistic this is remains to be seen, as the plan is currently only a declaration of intent. It is not politically binding.

Critics want to take advantage of attention

COP31 in Antalya could be the second largest UN climate conference ever with more than 60,000 delegates from over 190 countries. Critics in the country also want to take advantage of the international attention for Turkey.

For Greenpeace Türkiye, the coal phase-out is the number one demand of the government, says director Berkan Özyer to ARD. And: "Secondly, we want Turkey to announce an end to plastic waste imports. And thirdly: We need an open space in which environmental movements can raise their voices."

Because in Turkey, protests are regularly criminalized, including those from environmental and climate movements. Human rights organizations also fear this for any demonstrations during the climate conference.

Turkey will be under observation in the next two weeks - not only as a host country, but also because of how it deals with critical voices.