Coal and Climate Change 2017 Report
Coal and Climate Change 2017 Report: Turkey did not ratify Paris Agreement due to dependency on imported fossil fuels!
The Report reveals that Turkey, which declared that it will not ratify Paris Agreement, has become fully dependent on all of the three imported fuels after 2010. The report, which also examines the climatic events, shows that 2016 has been the fourth hottest year measured in Turkey and the second year in terms of climatic disasters.
Coal import is increasing in spite of natural gas and petroleum!
The report, which shows that the efforts of Turkey for popularizing natural gas since 1990 could stop neither coal nor petroleum, makes the observation that those three fuels have been racing in terms of increase since 2010. It is found out that energy consumption in Turkey increased by 75,9 million toe between 1990-2015 and that 70,2 million toe of this increase was caused by natural gas, petroleum and coal.
Wind YEKA competition shows how expensive coal is
Algedik, who stated that they reached another important finding besides imported coal dependency in the past years, in the report that is published this year, indicated that coal is more expensive than wind in spite of the provided incentives, and would be more expensive than all other sources without the incentives. The latest tenders held with the condition of local production of equipment resulted in prices of 6.99 cents for solar energy and 3.49 cent for wind, while Çayırhan B tender, which had imported machinery and equipment, was closed with a price of 6,04 cents.
Subvention of 2530 MW Imported Coal Plant
The report, which shows that subventions are provided for coal plants of 6.3 billion TL in 2016, reveals that plants with an installed power of 2530 MW, which will burn imported coal, have obtained various subventions. The author of the report, climate and energy expert, Önder Algedik, said: “We found out that a subvention of 2 billion TL has been directly or indirectly transferred to coal projects in 2016. The cost of this for the consumer is much bigger”. Algedik indicated that the problems would be completely solved by reserving this subvention for energy efficiency and climate-friendly energy, and a saving would be obtained from the foreign currency paid for coal and machine import and from the subventions for the investments.
Paris Agreement is not ratified for more energy import!
The greenhouse gases emitted by Turkey to the atmosphere increased from 214 million tons in 1990 to 475.1 million tons in 2015. 205,7 million tons of 261,1 million tons increase that occurred in 25 years has been energy sector – sourced. Algedik indicated that those policies are the findings showing that Turkey did not ratify Paris Agreement in order to sustain coal, petroleum and natural gas import.
Primary energy usage of Turkey
9 facts from the report:
- 2016 has been the fourth hottest year measured in Turkey and the second year in terms of extreme climatic events occurred most.
- Turkey increased greenhouse gas emissions by 262 million tons in 25 years between 1990-2015 and now wants to increase them by an additional 454 million tons until 2030 in accordance with INDC.
- Due to increasing fossil fuel dependency, the share of non-fossil energy decreased from 18% in 1990 to 12% in 2015.
- While Turkey had no imported coal plants until 2000, it reached an installed power of 7 GW today. With 62 plants that Turkey has today, imported plants are producing more electricity in spite of their installed power of 16,7 GW.
- Turkey had 20,2 GW of the imported coal power project in the pipeline despite 5 GW of local coal power plant project. When those plants are completed, the coal plant emissions of Turkey will be in excess of all emissions in 1990.
- In spite of the bids submitted for wind and solar energy tenders and relatively cheap prices, Turkey offered 6,04 cents/kwh for Çayırhan B coal power plant project with 15 years of purchase guarantee.
- 2 billion TL incentives have been provided for coal only in 2016,. Despite “local coal” discourse, 2530 MW of imported coal projects benefited from the incentives.
- Turkish Banks supported fossil fuel investments. 7 Turkish banks provided loans for a total of 9 GW coal plants.
- Between 1990-1999, an average of 67 extreme climatic events occurred in Turkey. With factors such as imported fossil fuels and urbanizations, this has increased to 752 events in 2016. Turkey’s high carbon economy will give rise to more irreparable consequences.