12

TH

SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION (20 OCTOBER 2015)

Esteemed Ministers, Dear participants, Ladies and gentlemen, I kindly and respectfully greet all of you. Welcome to Turkey and Ankara. I sincerely hope the 12th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will lead to good results for our country, neighboring area and the world. This is the first that Ankara is hosting such an international environmental conference of this scale. I am so pleased to welcome and host you in our capital city on the occasion of this significant conference. The 12th Session of the Conference of the Parties has coincided with a critical time period of the Sustainable Development Agenda. The Conference is being held immediately after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in New York in September, and before the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Paris in December. I would like to take this occasion to thank the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, specifically to the Minister and his team as well as other supporting institutions and bodies. I express my gratitude to all participants and delegates from Turkey and abroad in advance for the contributions they will make. Dear Guests... Global warming, climate change, desertification and drought are the most challenging issues of today’s world. "Desertification, land degradation and drought" are also the global challenges because of the fact that they affect an area of more than 4 billion hectares, and directly threaten almost 1.2 billion people in more than 110 countries. No one in the world is completely safe from the impacts of these problems. These problems not only have negative impacts on the environment, but also seriously affect the economy, security, development and social life. In today’s world, after the wars and civil wars, one of the primary reasons forcing people to leave their homeland is desertification. Each year, we lose more than 10 million hectares of agricultural land, and degrade 5.2 million hectares of forest land. Almost one billion people has lack of access to enough food due to the reasons related to land degradation. It is anticipated that global food production will decrease by 12% until 2035 due to the misuse of lands. The ones who suffer greatly from this situation are the less developed and developing countries.

1

The poor countries especially the ones in Africa, South America and South Asia pay the price for the degradation and negative effects caused by the industrialized and developed countries. Less developed countries are overwhelmed by the burden of a such a big problem that they have almost no responsibility to occur. Now, everyone must recognize that this unfair and unequal situation is unsustainable. We cannot solve this problem with palliative measurements, short-terms policies and the approaches focusing on the interests of only certain countries. Now, we must all face this basic reality to reverse the negative situation and find a permanent solution to the problem. The primary reason for this global problem affecting us is the alienation of mankind to her/his own self, her/his environment as well as the ancient values. Having eliminated the holy things and metaphysics from his life, mankind has become estranged to the environment as well as her/his own self. Being at a loose end for identifying his place in the world, the mankind has also become indifferent to other beings with which he shares his life. Nature, air, water, sea, environment, animals, earth... All these have been considered by mankind as factors to be dominated rather than the things to live together. We observe the awry effects of this alienation also in human relations in addition to mankind's relation with nature and environment. The mentality of colonialism and slave trade, which started in the 16th century, and peaked in the 18th and the 19th centuries, is the product of this skewed and distorted approach. This point of view, which everyone except itself as others, and makes no account of those whom it identifies as the other, has unfortunately left its mark on the last three centuries. During the industrial revolution, the delicate balance between mankind and nature degenerated in such a dangerous way that people needed to take action against such a frightening condition. Similarly, having been used for the first time during the World War II, atomic bomb caused devastations and the effects of which were felt beyond the place and time it was detonated.. Dear Guests... Nature is not something that is solely composed of trees, plants, air, water and natural resources. The nature is directly related to the very existence of individual and society, in other words, the mankind. Production, development and technology are not and cannot be important in a place where the existence of mankind is at risk and in danger of extinction. The future of mankind, with an understanding of development based on the devastation of the nature is dark. Here, I would also like to express that an environmental approach, not associated with the society and not matching up with either the history of a country or the values of its people can never be successful and prevent this dangerous course of events. From now on, the environment problem must be reconsidered within the scope of human-nature relations, and located in its original place in people's spiritual world. We also believe that the solutions to environmental problems both in our country and across the world need to be found within this frame.

2

We should consider the lands we live not only as an "inheritance" from our ancestors, but also as a "property" entrusted to us by our children. We should consider not only the present time, but also the future and not only ourselves, but also our children and the next generations. Based on this understanding, we form our environmental policies in line with the global standards. For example, we approved in 2009 the Kyoto Protocol, which many developed countries abstained from approving. Similarly, in the EU candidacy period, we have first started the Environment Chapter which is left by the majority of the countries to be started the last. In line with such developments, we have included the crimes against environment within the scope of the Turkish Penal Code. We have prioritized renewable energy operations. On the other hand, those who evaluate countries and peoples based solely on their underground resources, cause great sorrow. Today, while many offenses aimed at the existence of mankind and nature are being committed across the world, unfortunately the international community is not getting a good grade. In Syria right beside us, while 350,000 civilians were murdered, and a history, which was the common heritage of the mankind, was terminated along with its material and non-material elements, the world merely sat back and watched. While 12 million people were displaced and DE territorialized, approximately 5 million of whom, including also the 2.5 million people we are hosting in our country, took refuge beyond the borders of their own country, the international community virtually ignored these events. The right to live, which is considered to be the primary right of the citizens in western countries, has been regarded as a "luxury" for the people of Syria. Similarly, while the rights of those who demanded their democratic rights in Egypt as well as those who defended their dignity in Palestine were disregarded, all the world virtually played ostrich. Last century was a century, in which humanity was sacrificed and justice was suspended to own natural resources. Hereafter, we must comprehend that this merciless system cannot go on anymore in the 21st century. An understanding which does not value human for his humanity can never ensure global security and peace. In a world where consciences become desert, it is impossible to prevent the desertification of soil. First of all, we need to enrich our consciences with justice, respect to the other, peace and mercy, so that we can save lands too. We approach to the issue of environment and desertification in this way.

Dear Guests, Prophet Muhammed has left a quite significant heritage to the humanity along with his community by saying : "Plant the seedlings in your hand, even if you know that the doomsday will take place tomorrow", With this understanding, we have taken concrete steps in afforestation and combating desertification.

3

Turkey is the leader of the world in combating erosion, and one of the only countries which increases its forest land. Over the last 12 years, we have carried out afforestation and rehabilitation in an area of 4 million hectares, which equals to approximately 40 million decares. Since 2002, we have planted 3 billion and 250 million seedlings. Our forest land has reached to 21.7 million hectares. We have gained 900,000 hectares, in other words 9 million decares of new forest land. Our goal is to increase our forest land up to 30% of our country's surface area until the year 2023. While the amount of soil carried away by erosion was 500 million tons, it was reduced down to 168 million tons in 2014 as a result of the works we have been conducting. I would like to underline that the area we have planted over the last 4 years almost equals to the surface area of Belgium. The Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs of Turkey made an investment worth 93 billion Turkish Liras based on today's prices between 2003 and 2014 in the fields of energy, irrigation, drinking water and flood protection. We completed and put 2559 facilities into service for our dear citizens in the past 13 years. These include 279 dams, 18 of which are large Hydroelectric Plants, and 259 reservoirs. The amount and intensity of precipitation differ depending on the global climate change. On the other hand, precipitation instability causes erosion. We are carrying out several works in order to find solutions to floods, experienced frequently over the past few years. We are in particular rehabilitating river and stream beds. Within this frame, we have constructed a total of 1515 flood protection structures in the last 12 years. Having achieved an average growth rate of 5% during the last 10 years, Turkey has experienced a climate-friendly growth period by decreasing its carbon concentration by 6% within the same period of time. We have come a long way all around Turkey regarding waste management, climate-friendly technology and utilization of energy resources as well as air, water and soil quality improvement. We are working on a rapid transition to renewable energy sources in the field of energy. Additionally, we have initiated a significant urban transformation action across the country. As a result of such transformations, we are planning to achieve 40% saving just from consumptions in buildings.

energy

We are also executing our projects to decrease greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation one by one. The MARMARAY project which connects two continents, Asia and Europe, with a railway line under Bosphorus, is one of the projects serving as a model for the entire world. Again, in the same field, we are prioritizing Green Port and Green Airport practices; we are making an effort to promote public transportation in cities, and to complete new railway systems. Our new airport in Istanbul, which is still under construction, has been designed completely with an environment-friendly understanding. We will keep conducting such works.

4

Dear Guests... We are at a turning point to hand over a more habitable world to the future generations. We all shoulder significant responsibilities in this regard. For such concrete steps to be taken, we need to develop a fair, inclusive, flexible and legally-binding system at the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change in Paris. This issue particularly requires sincere regulations regarding financing and transition to green technology. During our G20 Presidential Term since 1 December 2014, we have made a great effort in order to ensure that our deep feelings takes its place in the global agenda. We have identified our priorities as all-inclusiveness, execution and investment for growth. We are particularly emphasizing importance of energy and climate change funding for sustainable development. During our presidential term, an inventory has been prepared to specify existing funds for combating climate change. In addition, instruments have been developed to allow developing countries, small island countries and African countries to access financial opportunities for adaptation to climate change. Our purpose is to ensure a challenge against poverty as well as sustainable development particularly in the least developed countries while enhancing welfare across the world. In this respect, I hope the results of the Conference of the Parties held in Ankara will make constructive and concrete contributions to the Climate Conference in Paris. I believe that the results of this conference will also accelerate the efforts to reduce poverty in the least developed countries, and contribute to food safety. I hope we will all together achieve the goals that we have jointly defined. While ending my speech with these thoughts, I once again wish success to the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. I would like to extend my gratitude to all who have contributed to the conference, and I sincerely and respectfully greet you all.

5