Cleaner production, carbon footprint reduction, green transition and global environmental developments, which have been on the rise recently, are followed and implemented by many stakeholders around the world. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Türkiye (MoEUCC) is also a follower of all these processes and carries out all necessary studies and strives to raise awareness in all relevant institutions and organizations, especially in the Turkish industry.
As it is known, the activities to adapt the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) approach, which is regulated by Chapters 1 and 2 of the Industrial Emissions Directive (EED) 2010/75/EU to the national legislation, are the basis of all the necessary studies, that the General Directorate of Environmental Management carries out. The last EU project which is accomplished on the subject is the "Determination of Industrial Emissions Strategy of Türkiye in Accordance with Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (DIES)" Project, mainly focuses on the Chemical and Mineral sectors.
Within the scope of the DIES Project activity related to awareness raising, with the vision of "It is Possible to Produce without Polluting", the Green Transition in Industry Seminar was held in Ankara on 6-7 December 2022 with the presence of the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Mr. Murat Kurum, and participation of high-level management from the private and public sectors.
The seminar opening was held with the valuable speeches of Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Mr. Murat KURUM, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the European Union, IPA Coordinator Mr. Faruk KAYMAKÇI, Turkish Parliamentary Industry, Trade, Energy, Natural Resources, Information and Technology Commission President, Mr. Ziya ALTUNYILDIZ, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Türkiye, Ms. Eleftheria PERTZINIDOU, Deputy Chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, Mr. Faruk YAVUZ, and OSBÜK President Mr. Memiş KÜTÜKÇÜ.
After the opening speeches, the overall goals of DIES Project were presented to the audience by the Project Team Leader, Ms. Dubravka PAJKIN TUCKAR. Following her introduction, from MoEUCC Mrs. İrde ÇETİNTÜRK GÜRTEPE, who is the head of the Department of Air Management, made a speech about the seminar agenda and the goal to be achieved with the seminar and green transition studies in the industry, and made a presentation on Air Quality Management in Türkiye on the behalf of Beneficiary Directory of the Project in the first session. After this session, with the panel on "Industrial Studies in Türkiye" moderated by Prof. Dr. Mustafa ILICALI, the Head of the Metal Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Mr. Ümit Yasin GÜVEN, presented and evaluated the current production flows in Türkiye's Iron-Steel and Aluminum sectors, the national import and export amounts of these two sectors, and the national and international data CO2 emissions per product. In addition, the General Manager of Industrial Zones of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Mr. Fatih TURAN made an informative presentation on the Green OIZ Certification System. Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Bestami ÖZKAYA from Yıldız Technical University Environmental Engineering Department, informed the audience about the need for hydrogen fuel and the reasons for choosing hydrogen for clean energy by the presentation titled “Clean Energy Hydrogen Applications”. The presentation named “Principles of Cleaner Production-Waste Minimization and Conversion” was made by Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman AKYOL from Gebze Technical University Environmental Engineering Department. The last presentation of the panel was made by Associate Professor Hatice ŞENGÜL from Hacettepe University Environmental Engineering Department on “Industrial Ecology for Cleaner Production”.
In the last session of the day, three panel series moderated by Prof. Dr. Alper ÜNAL, Prof. Dr. Gülen GÜLLÜ and Prof. Dr. Mustafa ŞAHMARAN, and good practice examples in the chemical, mineral, metal, dairy, textile, leather and wood panel sectors were discussed with detailed presentations by the sector representatives.
On the second day of the seminar, the first session on “Industrial Emissions Strategy in Türkiye and Europe” was moderated by Prof. Dr. Ersin KARAMAN. Air Management Department Sustainability Strategy and Zero Pollution Branch Manager, Mr. Önder GÜRPINAR from MoEUCC, in his presentation titled "The Current Situation of Green Transition Studies in Industry", gave information about the green transition studies in the industry and the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) approach and the projects carried out in this context. The second presentation was made by DIES Project Key Expert Dr. Bianca Maria SCALET on the topic “Evolution of European Legislation on Industrial Emissions and Contributions to Energy and Circular Economy Policies with the Climate Neutral Target”. In her speech, she mentioned the sources of greenhouse gas emissions and the activities carried out in Europe to reduce emissions and current environmental policies. In the final presentation of this session on “Revision of the Industrial Emissions Framework - Objectives and Actions”, the Policy Officer from the EU Commission, General Directorate of Environment - Industrial Emissions and Safety team, Mr. Michael BENNETT covered the Industrial Emissions Directive (EED) in a comprehensive manner and conveyed the objectives of the directive and the timeline for its implementation to the audience.
The second session in the morning was on “Border Carbon Regulation, Circular Economy and Industrial Emissions Relationship” and moderated by Associate Professor Abdulkadir DEVELİ. The first presentation of the second session was made by Director of TOBB SME Research and Consultancy Center, Mr. Cahit CEREN. With his presentation, he gave information about the climate change studies carried out within TOBB and the TOBB’s working strategy, and introduced the TOBB Carbon Platform, which was prepared within TOBB and will be put into practice for its members in a short time. The second presentation on carbon at the border was made by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Deputy Head of the Climate Change Presidency, Mr. Abdulkadir BEKTAŞ by the presentation with a title of "Border Carbon Regulation and the Situation in Türkiye". The next presentation was made by EU expert, Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development, Mr. Dijana VARLEC on “Decarbonization of Non-EU Products as a Response to the Border Carbon Regulation Mechanism”. The final presentation of the morning sessions, with the title of "Contribution of the Industrial Emissions Directive to the Circular Economy", was made by Italy Sardinia Regional Environmental Protection Agency Project Senior Specialist, Mr. Romano RUGGERİ.
In the last session of the seminar titled “The Relationship between Taxonomy, Sustainable Finance and Industrial Emissions”, Prof. Dr. Fatma Suna BALCI was the moderator. Head of the Climate Finance and Incentives Department of our Ministry, Mr. Elif Gökçe ÖZ, in her presentation on “Taxonomy, Sustainable Finance and the Current Situation in Türkiye”, made an introduction to the three main branches of sustainable finance, Environment, Social and Government, and explained the importance of sustainable finance and the reason for the three main branches. In her presentation, she also talked about the four conditions of taxonomy and technical screening criteria and talked about examples in Türkiye and the world. In the second and third presentations of the session, examples were given on the Challenges and Benefits of EED for Industry and the Role of Competent Authorities in EU Countries. From the General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Valencian Regional Government of Spain, Mr. Javier Gonzales VIDAL explained the Spain Example while Senior Technical Specialist from VITO, Mr. Sander Vander AA explained the example of Belgium. In the last presentation of this session, Ms. Sandra PEZELJ MESTRIC from the Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development provided information on sustainable finance, green finance and climate finance under the title of “Sustainable Finance, Taxonomy and the Principle of Doing No Significant Harm” and conveyed how the principle should be applied by referring to the approach of doing no significant harm.
At the end of the seminar, General Manager of Environmental Management; Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, Mr. Eyyüp KARAHAN took the floor and thanked all academicians, panelists, colleagues and the project team for their support. He continued his speech by stating that an IPPC legislation containing communiqués for 33 sectors within the scope will be issued. He underlined that such studies feed the prepared legislation and that they attach great importance to the opinions of the stakeholders during and after the preparation of the legislation. Afterwards, he mentioned the topics discussed during the seminar and ended the seminar by thanking all the participants.
The Green Transition Seminar Presentations are available in Turkish here.
