EU, Turkey to work together on climate crisis

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The European Commission’s executive vice president for the European Green Deal and Turkish minister of environment and urbanization on Thursday held the first EU-Turkey high-level dialogue on climate change.

The officials discussed the necessary steps to fight the devastating effects of climate change and to significantly cut emissions by 2050.

“The European Union and Turkey need to work very closely together. We have so many things we can solve in common,” Frans Timmermans said following his meeting with Minister Murat Kurum.

Kurum called the climate crisis “a challenge that no single country can overcome on its own” and explained that Ankara was committed to doing its best to mitigate the effects of climate change.

He also stressed that the Turkish government agrees with the zero-emission and carbon-neutrality targets of the Paris Agreement, and explained that they had started talks on the support that the EU could provide for Turkey on reaching these goals.

Timmermans promised to work jointly “to face this existential crisis, which is the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis” after the talks that he called “excellent.”

He also explained that they would focus on showing their citizens that "solving the climate crisis is not just necessary but it is also possible.”

Talks will continue at the technical level in the upcoming months. The EU commissioner will visit Ankara in January.