Tuğba Ağaçayak is an environmental engineer and climate scientist. Her research focuses on air pollution and climate change. She received her PhD in climate and marine sciences from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences. Tuğba received her master’s degrees from Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Business Administration at ITU. She completed her master’s thesis on “Investigation of an Emission Inventory for Turkey” as an ERASMUS scholar at University of Stuttgart, Germany in 2006.

After working at TUBITAK MRC, Institute of Environment as a researcher between 2007-2009, she was appointed as research assistant at ITU. In her doctoral thesis, she modeled the impacts of aerosols on Eastern Mediterranean Climate. During her PhD, she worked as a visiting researcher at CNRS Laboratoire d'Aérologie, Toulouse, France. Afterwards, she carried out her postdoctoral research at TU Berlin, Germany between 2015-2016, where she conducted experimental research to investigate greenhouse gas emissions from compost and fertilizer application. Currently, she works at TUSIAD as an expert on environment and climate change.

Project: “Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Waste and Agriculture Sectors and its Multi-level Governance in Turkey”

Greenhouse gas emissions from waste and agriculture sectors have significantly increased over the last decade. There are several strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but the efforts in Turkey are not sufficient. In order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, applicable reduction targets should be set, and strategies should be clarified, diversified, and implemented urgently.

This project aims to investigate the mitigation potential of greenhouse gas emissions from waste and agricultural sectors. Subsectors will be defined, and the current situation in terms of emissions will be determined. Specific mitigation strategies for each subsector will be emphasized. The potential of composting, in particular, will be determined as a method to decrease organic waste disposed of in landfills. By applying compost and composted manure to agricultural areas, fertilizer usage and subsequent emissions can be minimized.

It is particularly important to improve multi-level climate governance in Turkey. This project will help to provide knowledge to stakeholders to collaborate for mitigation strategies. Through public outreach initiatives, the aim is to reach all stakeholders and scientists, as well as the public. The specific social, cultural, and political conditions of Turkey will be considered in order to formulate realistic targets and applicable methods.