OECD, Turkish official talk environmental report card

By Yildiz Nevin Gundogmus

PARIS (AA) - A report card on Turkey's recent performance as an environmentally friendly country was the focus of a Wednesday meeting in Paris with officials of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In a presentation to the meeting at the OECD Conference Center, Mehmet Emin Birpinar, Turkey’s deputy environment and urbanization minister, said the 2017 household waste recycling rate of 13 percent will be increased to at least 35 percent by 2023.

A total of 100,000 people will be employed in this effort, he added.

Wednesday’s meeting was for Turkey’s OECD Environmental Performance Reviews (EPR), meant to provide independent assessments of its progress towards its environmental policy objectives.

On Turkey's current air quality, Birpinar also said that the air of 64 cities is being monitored through web-based software.

On sea pollution, he said Turkey is doing a very good job at preventing this, and expects the OECD to include this issue in its evaluations.

Turkey is not using funding and technology support provided to countries at similar levels of development, he said, and the availability of funds would be a red line in bringing it closer to the 2015 Paris Agreement.

In 2016, Turkey signed the agreement to fight climate change but has not yet ratified it, he added.