Paris Agreement: New Climate Era in Turkey

María Victoria Díaz Pérez

A. Introduction

On October 6, 2021, the Turkish Grand National Assembly approved the of the Paris Agreement (“Agreement”) and its ratification was published in the Turkey’s Official Gazette on October 7, 2021.  Therefore Turkey became as party of the Paris Agreement

The ratification of the Agreement was reported to the UN Secretariat on October 11 and came into effect in Turkey on November 10, that is 30 days after the approval notification to the UN Secretariat, becoming Turkey the 192nd country to be a “Party” to the Agreement.

This memorandum shall cover a legal analysis of the Agreement and its impact for private sector and businesses.

B. Legal Base

The Agreement is first universal, legally binding global climate change agreement, adopted at the Paris climate conference in December 2015. The Agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. In order to give effect to the Agreement, certain key elements were established to comply with the policies and climate-neutrality before the end of the century.

The key elements are the following:

• Mitigation: establishes binding commitments by all Parties to prepare, communicate and maintain a nationally determined contribution (“NDC”) and to pursue domestic measures to achieve them. Also states a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change.

• Transparency and Global Stocktake: establishes that each Party shall communicate the NDC every five years and to assess the collective progress towards the long-term goals and track towards their commitments under the Agreement and to be informed by the outcomes of the global stocktake in order to reach a transparent and accountability system.

• Adaptation: establishes a global goal on adaptation to strengthen societies ability to deal with the impacts of climate change and to provide continued and enhanced international support for adaptation to developing countries. Each Party shall, as appropriate, engage in adaptation planning processes and the implementation including the development or enhancement of relevant plans, policies and/or contributions.

• Loss and Damage: recognises the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change also acknowledges the need to cooperate and enhance the understanding, action and supporting different areas such as early warning systems, emergency preparedness and risk insurance.

• Global peaking:  aims  to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), as soon as possible, achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources  and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century.

After the ratification of the Agreement and due to Turkey ranks 16th among the countries that cause the most greenhouse gas emissions in the world and its per capital emission level is increasing every day, it was released a Joint Statement signed by environmental groups in Turkey, establishing that Turkey must first set short-term climate targets that will cover the period until 2053 in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and new action plans, especially in the field of energy but also in industry, transportation, buildings, agriculture, waste, and the use of natural assets.

On the other hand, not only the Agreement is important to bear in mind in this new climate era, there are also another decisions, rules and guidelines that must be follow in order to implement the Agreement. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the “Katowice Rulebook” adopted at the 24th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (“COP24”). The COP24 covers all key areas including transparency, finance, mitigation, adaptation and enable the Parties to progressively enhance their contributions to tackling climate change in order to reach the Agreement long-term goals.

The 26th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (“COP26”), held on October 31 to November 12, 2021, ended with the signing of the Glasgow Climate Pact by all countries. Inside this Pact, was decided that countries would come with more ambitious climate targets by the end of 2022.  Reducing coal use and ending subsidies to fossil fuels were included in official negotiation texts for the first time.  Turkey took a determined stance and promised that the negotiation decisions would be decisive in climate policy.

The Turkish delegation, in its closing speech, stated that in the beginning of 2022, a climate council will be formed with the participation of all stakeholders in order to determine Turkey’s 2030 and 2053 roadmaps, and that all the decisions in COP26 will be resolved. According to the statement, Turkey will be the primary driver for compliance with its national and international commitments and stated that Turkey is determined to be the regional leader in the implementation of the Agreement and to leave a prosperous and livable planet to future generations.

C. Impacts to Private Sector and Businesses

The Agreement recognises the role of non-Party stakeholders in addressing climate change, including cities, other subnational authorities, civil society, the private sector, business and others. They are invited to scale up their efforts and (i) support actions to reduce emissions; (ii) build resilience and decrease vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change; and (iii) uphold and promote regional and international cooperation.

For the first time the private sector is recognized as an integral part of the global solution to address climate change. There is a clear policy signal for businesses and investors across all jurisdictions to make low emission or emission-neutral investments, whether through financing projects or investing in new technologies. That is why the Agreement have immediate impact on businesses and investors, because the national climate plans are now being implemented into domestic and local laws.

Also invites Parties to further enhance their enabling environments, policy frameworks, institutions and national public financial management systems with a view to improving access to international public support, as appropriate, and to enhancing the involvement of the private sector.

In this sense, the Decision 11/CMA.1 adopted by the COP24 states the Methodologies for assessing adaptation needs with a view to assisting developing countries and request users and developers of relevant methodologies, including academia and the private sector, to regularly update an inventory of relevant methodologies for assessing adaptation needs, including needs related to action, finance, capacity-building and  technological support in the context of national adaptation planning and implementation, and to make the information available on the adaptation knowledge portal.

The private sector and businesses need to take the corresponding climate action and understand these international and national processes in order to remain competitive in an evolving market and in this new climate era.

Already some Countries have stablished industries policies in the national climate plans. In the case the EU target of 43% GHG emission reductions below 2005 levels in ETS sectors by 2030, this includes facilities producing iron and steel, cement, glass, lime, bricks, ceramics, pulp, paper, petrochemicals, and aluminum. In the case of China, creates a national emissions trading system which cover industry sector, including ferrous and non ferrous metals, power generation, chemicals, paper manufacture and building materials. India, conversely, states that highly polluting industries will have to install 24×7 real-time monitoring of emission and effluent discharge points, and on the Mexico side, states to emissions across several industries, including iron and steel, minerals, chemicals, non-energy products from fuels, and electronics.

Therefore, the Turkish Government will also start to implement plans and industries policies to private sector and businesses in other to reach the short and long-term goals.

 D. Conclusions

• The ratification of the Agreement by the Turkish Government will lead to a set of internal laws, rules and policies in order to reach the short and long-term goals following the key elements of mitigation, transparency, global stoktake, adaptation, loss and damage, global peaking and any other elements established in the Agreement that will lead Turkey into a new climate and sustainability era.

• The private sector and businesses are an integral part of the global solution on the climate change. The Agreement not only invited them to support actions to reduce emissions and build resilience and decrease vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change, they will also be internally regulated in order to make low emission or emission-neutral investments, whether through financing projects or investing in new technologies and any other action plans also to reach the short-long terms goals.

• The private sector and businesses also needs to take the corresponding climate action and understand these international and national processes in order to remain competitive in an evolving market and in this new climate era.

This document is issued by Erendac Legal Consultancy & Attorney and all rights are reserved.

© 2021