Strengthening Türkiye's Climate Change Legislation: A Comparative Examination with Germany's Federal Climate Change Act

Executive Summary

This policy analysis critically examines Türkiye’s draft Climate Change Law, highlighting its strengths and
limitations in the context of addressing climate change and achieving carbon neutrality by 2053. While
Türkiye has made commendable progress on climate change policy, the lack of a legally binding force
in its current efforts has been a cause for concern. The draft law places considerable emphasis on the
proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but is limited in its provisions for broader climate regulations
beyond carbon pricing. Using Germany’s Federal Climate Change Act as a model, this analysis evaluates
Türkiye’s legislative approach and emphasizes the importance of setting well-defined and binding
emissions reduction targets. Germany’s experience demonstrates the effectiveness of an independent
expert council on climate change and provides insights into the need for Türkiye to establish a similar
body for informed policy-making. The analysis also identifies key shortcomings in Türkiye’s draft law,
including ineffective ETS design, unclear implementation procedures, and inadequate stakeholder
engagement. It suggests that environmental NGOs, scientific experts, and civil society should be involved
in the legislative process to ensure a more inclusive and accountable framework. In addition, the analysis
underlines the need for Türkiye to mandate a phaseout of fossil fuels.

Introduction 

While Türkiye has taken tangible strides in climate policy since 2021, such as announcing the Green Deal Action Plan, ratifying the Paris Agreement in parliament, and committing to achieve carbon neutrality by 2053, these efforts are not legally binding. Currently, Türkiye’s climate change regulations are spread across various strategy papers and action plans. One recent notable legislative development is the announcement of the draft Carbon Market Regulation in November 2023.1 This regulation introduces an emissions trading system (ETS) in response to the EU’s carbon border tax, aiming to address mounting concerns and pressures from Turkish exporters. The ETS is expected to be enacted by 2025.