I work and write on climate change, climate finance and climate risk analytics

Author: Arif Cem Gundogan Page 3 of 5

Featured Article: Turkey and climate change talks on the eve of the Paris Agreement

Turkey Representation of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung started to publish the quarterly, “Alternatif – Political Analysis and Commentary from Turkey”, in both Turkish and English. With their own words “this quarterly periodical strives to be a source of reference for civil society, decision makers, opinion leaders in- and outside of Turkey”. Their first issue features our article on the eve of COP21. Below you will find Turkish version but if you click this link you can also read the English one. Enjoy.

Climate Action Tracker (CAT) Assessment of Turkey’s INDC

Climate Action Tracker published the analysis of Turkey’s INDC as of 22 October 2015. I think this is a critical document for Turkish side and would be very useful for self evaluation. So, I decided to translate it into Turkish. Here it is, available for wider audience in Turkey. 

New Climate Regime & Business World

Me and my colleagues* just delivered a brief report on the new climate regime and what it means for business world (in Turkish). We undertook the assignment on behalf of Turkey’s prominent industrial conglomerate group consisting of 48 companies. The report remains internal and will not be disclosed.

* Thanks to dear colleagues who put great effort in the publication: Ethemcan Turhan, Mustafa Özgür Berke and Cem İskender Aydın.

 

 

And that’s all folks! Geo-engineering won’t save us.

Thanks to a colleague, I saw & read Kevin Anderson’s (Tyndall Centre) recently published commentary (Duality in Climate Science) on Nature Geoscience.

Screen Shot 2015-10-20 at 09.52.17

While I strongly recommend you to read it before COP21, I think it is timely to share my review (in Turkish) of some key articles on geo-engineering (aka climate engineering). I find this valuable to discuss in advance of the climate summit as CSS or other techniques have been advertised as effective options for GHG mitigation. Well, science says no, we can’t escape from the fact that we must do radical emission cuts although this seems “politically disturbing”. Please read more in Turkish:

Emission Trading System: The Only Option for Turkey?

ekoiq56_2I wrote a short article for the 56th issue of EKO IQ (Turkey’s foremost green business magazine) and argued that emission trading system is not the only policy option Turkey has. Priority should be given to regulatory mechanisms rather than market based ones if Turkey is to be progressive about its transition to a low carbon economy.  Please continue to read more (in Turkish).

Turkey, INDC & Disappointment

diken

Turkey’s delayed INDC raised questions and caused disappointment among the Turkish environmental NGOs & climate scientists. Me and Dr. Ethemcan Turhan analysed the document and wrote a piece (in Turkish) for the prominent on-line news portal www.diken.com.tr. We hope to publish an English version soon.

Turkey submits its INDC

For those who follow UNFCCC updates closely, you are all aware of the fact that INDCs submitted after 1 October 2015 will not be included in the UNFCCC synthesis report to COP21 (aka most critical climate summit of history). Till this moment 133 party submitted their climate action plans (INDC) ahead of the summit.

All about the INDCs in 8 graph

The World Resources Institute and Open Climate Network developed an excellent data visualization of the submitted INDCs (CAIT Climate Data Explorer). I have gathered 8 striking graphics produced by the explorer and put in a single PDF file which can be accessible from this link. You can also click read more to access them individually. 

On the Road to Paris

Adsız

EKO IQ, Turkey’s first and foremost green business & life magazine generously published my reflections on the International Scientific Conference “Our Common Future under Climate Change” that took place at UNESCO and UPMC (Paris) in July 2015. This was the largest forum for the scientific community to come together ahead of the 21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21).

As the issue is archived, the full text in Turkish is now available for free access.

Dreaming infinite growth on a finite planet…

Relying on material extraction & consumption, I wonder how that economy line goes to infinity without disturbing the planet. Hasn’t the time come yet to consider degrowth?

“I love this,” she said. The straight line was supposed to represent economic growth, past and future, the curved line the rise and fall of greenhouse-gas emissions. – Elizabeth Kolbert’s interview with Christiana Figueres, published at the New Yorker on 24 Aug 2015 issue

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