According to IPCC's 2023 Synthesis Report (AR6), greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities are unequivocally the triggers of global warming.
Based on the same report, the global surface temperature rose by 1.1°C between 2011 and 2020, surpassing the temperature records from 1850 to 1900. The changes that have occurred in our planet’s climate system, along with the increase in global temperature, unprecedented in millennia, are resulting in many devastating consequences, from rising sea levels to weather extremes and rapidly disappearing glaciers.
Highlights from the findings on global warming shared in the IPCC Report:
- Greenhouse gas emission concentrations are higher than any other time in the last 2 million years. The level of glacier retreat is unprecedented in the last 2,000 years.
- The last 10 years have been the warmest period in the past 125,000 years.
- The rise in sea level has been greater than any other century in the past 3,000 years.
- Ocean warming has accelerated to levels not recorded since the last ice age.
- The current level of ocean acidification is the highest it has been in the past 26,000 years.
The adverse impacts of climate change on both humans and ecosystems are more widespread and severe than anticipated.
Approximately half of the global population struggles with severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. High temperatures contribute to the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.
Since 2008, devastating floods and storms have forced more than 20 million people from their homelands. Each additional degree of warming will further exacerbate these threats. At this level of warming, for example, 950 million people across the world’s drylands will experience water stress, heat stress, and desertification, while the share of the global population exposed to flooding will rise by 24%.
According to the IPCC report, implementing climate change adaptation measures will increase the resilience of the global ecosystem.
Scaling up adaptation solutions requires significant financing. While climate policy adaptation is being considered in 170 countries as of 2023, the majority of them have not yet progressed from planning to implementation.
According to the IPCC, it has been projected that developing countries alone will need USD 127 billion per year by 2030 and USD 295 billion per year by 2050 to adapt to climate change.
The good news is that proven and readily implemented adaptation solutions, with adequate support, can build resilience to climate risks and, in many cases, simultaneously deliver broader sustainable development benefits.
The transition to a low-carbon economy depends on a wide range of closely associated drivers and constraints.
Despite significant progress over the past ten years, sectoral and cross-country collaboration, policy strengthening, and coordination are still necessary to mitigate the adverse impacts of the climate crisis.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued a red alert at COP28, announcing that the increase in the temperature of our planet will reach 1.4°C in 2023, according to findings from preliminary studies.
The combination of rising temperatures as a result of climate change caused by fossil fuels and the climate effect generated by the El Niño* climate pattern in the Eastern Pacific has led to record temperatures in 2023.
Scientists are concerned that 2024 could witness even more adverse climate and temperature conditions, as the impact of El Niño on the climate peaks in the winter months and temperatures rise even higher.
The overarching goal of the EU Green Deal is for Europe to become the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The EU aims to achieve a cleaner environment, more affordable energy, smarter transportation, new job opportunities, and a better quality of life in general by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, the European Green Deal, announced in 2019, envisions a green transformation across various business lines, from agriculture to industry, from energy to transportation.
As the EU progresses towards a zero-carbon journey, it is preparing to launch the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to mitigate any adverse impacts that this process will have on its economy. Under CBAM, countries without carbon pricing on exports to the EU will be subject to a fee or tax. The CBAM mainly aims to increase the competitiveness of companies that will bear the cost of the measures to be taken to protect the climate in the EU.
The EU's "green transformation" is expected to have an impact on Türkiye, which exports a substantial portion of its products to the EU.
CBAM, which will be a tax-equivalent practice, will impose a cost on Türkiye's GDP. Although it will result in cost increases in sectors such as cement, electricity production, fertilizer, iron and steel, and aluminum, the real concern will be the challenges that Turkish companies will encounter in obtaining financing unless they establish permanent policies and practices to address the climate crisis.
Under the leadership of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye and with the coordination of all public and private sectors, an Action Plan was announced, which comprises eighty-one actions and thirty-two goals under nine fundamental criteria. The plan, which serves as a roadmap, is designed to enhance Türkiye's competitiveness in exports and in the international arena, increase green investments in the country, and simultaneously establish Türkiye as a hub for green investments.
While CBAM may initially impose a burden on exporting companies, it is important for our country to recognize and assess this window as an opportunity for the medium- and long-term transition to a circular economy.
*The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a recurring natural phenomenon characterized by fluctuating ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, coupled with changes in the atmosphere, which have a major influence on climate patterns in various parts of the world.
