REPORT INTRODUCTION – TURKEY'S DECARBONIZATION ROADMAP: NET ZERO IN 2050

Executive Summary

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 as a crucial step in combating climate change, is an international climate agreement aiming to keep the global average temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius and to strive to keep it at 1.5 degrees. Article 4 of the Paris Agreement envisages the reduction of global emissions by peaking them as soon as possible and establishing a balance between emissions released by human activities and emissions removed by sinks in the second half of the century. The concept of Net Zero Emissions is used to express this balance point. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on 1.5 Degrees, limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees is vital, and to achieve this goal, global emissions need to be reduced to 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 and to zero by 2050. The Glasgow Climate Pact, adopted at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, also underlined this goal.

Conclusion

According to the findings of this report, which is the first published study on how Turkey can achieve its current Net Zero target and the content of the National Contribution Statement expected to be updated, it is possible for the Turkish economy to be largely decarbonized within 30 years by abandoning fossil fuels, transitioning to renewable energy, and approaching the Net Zero target in the early 2050s through energy efficiency and electrification in related sectors. The assumptions used in this report preserve the fundamental characteristics of the current economic structure and demonstrate the results of policy changes based primarily on energy transformation and investments in carbon-free technologies.