As part of the International Climate Initiative and a joint project conducted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation, a high level meeting was held in Ankara on Wednesday May 11, 2016, entitled “From Paris to Antalya for a New Climate Change Regime”. The Env.net team in TEMA Foundation was present at the meeting, together with their NGO partners from the Turkish Climate Network, “İklim Ağı”.
In the morning, a high level session was held, with the participation of GIZ Country Director Mr. Carl Taestensen, First Secretary of Economic Sector of French Embassy Mr. Sylvain Berger, German Ambassador Mr. Martin Erdmann, EU Ambassador Hansjörg Haber, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Turkey UNDP Resident Representative Mr. Kamal Malhotra and Minister of Environment and Urbanisation Mrs. Fatma Güldemet Sarı.
The afternoon session of the meeting continued with a panel moderated by Turkey’s head negotiator of climate change, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpınar, with participation of Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Zafer Benli, representative of the the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Mr. Alexander Fisher, Representatif form DG-CLIMA Mr. Dimitrios Zevgolis, Deputy General Director of Undersecretariat of Treasury Mr. Oğuz Tezmen, and TEMA Foundation’s General Director Assoc. Prof. Barış Karapınar, who was representing the Turkish Climate Network.
In the panel, Prof. Karapınar expressed the views of the Turkish civil society on the current climate related policies of the Turkish Government. More specifically, he mentioned that the current INDC of the country is not ambitious enough and Turkey should leave the fossil fuel intensive economic development paths. He added that current Electricity Market Law which provide high price purchase support for domestic lignite fired power plants will have severe environmental consequences, and therefore should not be implemented. Instead, the current fossil fuel subsidies should be diverted to the renewable energy projects.
Local people of Mound Ida (Kaz Dağı) have united against the planned gold mining activies in their villages. The movement of the villagers are growing through exchange of experiences and solidarity. Env.net subgrantee, Association for Protection of Natural and Cultural Assets of Mount Ida has started the movement and is stil very actively involved in the Project “People of Mount Ida Protecting Their Nature”.
In November, 2015 they have protested the mining company during the EIA meeting using their whistles and banners. They have organized many awareness raising events, distributed brochures in regards to the issue and through these activities they have gathered over 5,000 signatures against the gold mine. The association also organized a seminar, which involved 2 speakers. Berkay Atik, Board Member of the Wheat Association has emphasized the importance of supporting the local environmental activism and also local economic development and has suggested to form a network for the locals to sell their natural healthy products without intermediaries. He has also given some information about “food communities” and “community supported agriculture”.
In her speech Suheyla Dogan, the president of Association for Protection of Natural and Cultural Assets of Mount Ida has emphasized that empowering women has reflected on the development of the local villages.
UPDATE:
On Thursday June 9th, Association for Protection of Natural and Cultural Assets represantatives Ms Süheyla Doğan and Ms Olga Durel were hosted at the Env.net supported radio show produced by the Env.net team in TEMA Foundation called “Yeşil Dalga” (Green Wave) on “Açık Radyo” (Open Radio). The podcast of the broadcast in Turkish can be reached at the following link:
As part of its policy of meeting with local volunteers in each city, TEMA Foundation organised its fourth regional volunteering meeting on Saturday 7 May 2016 in Van, an ancient city in the eastern Turkey, where more than 150 TEMA Volunteers from the cities of Muş, Iğdır, Bingöl, Siirt, Bitlis, Ağrı and Van were gathered in.
The meeting started with the welcoming speech of Başak Yalvaç Özçağdaş, the head of the Volunteering and Field Coordination Department of TEMA Foundation. Following her speech, Chairwoman of the Board, Deniz Ataç and General Director Assoc. Prof. Barış Karapınar presented the last year’s achievements and future plans of the Foundation, concluding the morning session.
The afternoon session was organised with the support of Env.net project. First, Env.net project coordinator and climate policy officer Cem İskender Aydın first presented the env.net project and its past achievements, and then talked about climate justice and climate change. Following him, Atila Uras from UNDP-Turkey presented the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) which were agreed upon by the United Nations in 2015.
The meeting was concluded with a Q&A session, addressing the questions of the volunteers about TEMA Foundation and its policies regarding environmental issues.
On May 3rd, a closed workshop was organised by the env.net team in TEMA Foundation, to discuss the latest version of Turkey’s draft water law with the reknown experts from TEMA’s scientific advisory committee.
In the meeting, participants compared the two latest drafts of the law, shared with public: the 2012 and 2016 versions. It was agreed upon that the latest draft still failed to address the most important issues against the commoditisation and commercialisation of water. The experts, in unanimity, claimed that, although the law seems to bring many improvements regarding to the current condition, the discussed draft is still far from being complete and cannot be accepted as it is. The lack of a proper definition of water and missing statements against the non-commercialisation cancel out all the possible improvements and put the scarce water resources of the country in great danger.
The views discussed in the workshop were then put together by the env.net team and sent to the relevant stakeholders in the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs.
NGO Green Home as representative from the ENV.net Montenegro organized awareness event – round table „Harmonization of Montenegrin legislation with the EU acquis in the field of environment“. Round table took place in Podgorica on 6th June 2016.
The aim of this round table was to inform interested public concerning importance of the process of harmonization of Montenegrin legislation with the EU acquis in the field of environment and also to inform interested public about planned activity and intended results of relevant institutions as well as about achieved results so far and realized activities in the field of environment.
At the round table representatives of Ministry of sustainable development and tourism, Ministry of agriculture and rural development and Environmental protection agency held several presentations. Most of participants were students and interns of NGOs and Public institutions.
LIR Evolution organised an advocacy awareness raising event in collaboration with the Institute for public health Banja Luka. The event took place together with the international Earth day. Many thematic fields were covered: new technologies in science, health disasters and prevention, forests environment, protection of biodiversity and its positive effects on human health.
This year the EEB’s Annual Conference will be hosted by our Austrian member Umweltdachverband in Vienna, on Monday 26 September 2016.
After the adoption last year of the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the historic Paris climate deal, 2016 must be a year of delivery. This means the systematic implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through the adoption of a Sustainable Development Strategy that will help the EU move away from firefighting to solving its major challenges in a coherent, holistic, sustainable manner. It also means concrete progress in developing and implementing policies to limit climate change, protect biodiversity, green agriculture, promote a genuine circular economy and eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies.
Organized together with EEB Austrian member Umweltdachverband, the EEB’s 2016 Annual Conference will debate how policies can and should be delivered to tackle these challenges, with a particular focus on climate and energy, biodiversity and the circular economy.
We invite you to join us in Vienna on 26 September 2016, together with high-level speakers from the EU institutions, academia and civil society, to exchange ideas and opinions and discuss concrete solutions to some of the main environmental questions facing Europe and the world.
The full programme and online registrations will be available closer to the conference at www.eebconference.eu
With aim to provide a forum for discussion on human security issues, recently a topic so much in focus both in the Balkan countries and Turkey and EU, Ch4hs (Citizens’ Network for Human Security) organised a two-day event, that was held in Sofia, Bulgaria (http://www.iris-bg.org/menu.php?i_id=449). Topics in focus included issues of human (in)security, dynamics of globalisation and policies of securitisation, as well as discussions on other pending human security issues deemed important by the forum participants, like small arms, environment, education, social polarisation, networking etc.
.Cn4hs project, implemented in four Balkan countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo) and Turkey, plus Bulgaria is established and supported under the EU FPA programme.
Representatives of ENV.net team from Macedonia, together with more then 70 representatives from Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Turkey, France and Greece (members of Ch4hs network, funded via the EU FPA programme) participated in this two-day event. The event provided a forum for meeting, discussions and exchange of information and experience among the participants.
Additionally, it gave us an opportunity to point to the right to a safe, healthy and ecologically-balanced environment as a human right in itself, as relevant for the voice of citizens when dealing with human security matters.
At the end of the event participants signed a joint statement to formally establish an expanded Citizens’ Network for Human Security (cn4hs) active in addressing the challenges for human security in the Balkans and Turkey and to cooperate, advocate and promote solutions to these challenges.
Regional EnE16-ENV.net Conference will be held on June 6, 2016., at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbian in Belgrade, Terazije 23 . Theme of the conference this year is „Climate Change
and Sustainability of Resources“. This Conference is organized by “Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development” through the ENV.net projet, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.
on 24th May organized its cleaning campaign in entire Kosovo. This initiative is a citizen initiative that deals with activities for protecting the environment I Kosovo, addressing environmental problems and organizing cleaning actions. “Let’s clean Kosova” is part of a global “Lest Do It World” that is present in 110 countries in the World.
In order to mark this important day, more than 60.000 volunteers in 30 Municipalities were engaged in order to eliminate 147 illegal dumping sites and other garbage filled areas. More than 5.000 tons of garbage resulted to be collected during a one day activity.
versions. It was agreed upon that the latest draft still failed to address the most important issues against the commoditisation and commercialisation of water. The experts, in unanimity, claimed that, although the law seems to bring many improvements regarding to the current condition, the discussed draft is still far from being complete and cannot be accepted as it is. The lack of a proper definition of water and missing statements against the non-commercialisation cancel out all the possible improvements and put the scarce water resources of the country in great danger.
