dear colleagues dear our guests we would like to welcome you to our port webinar namely climate positive growth which is prepared by senior turkey the association of energy engineers is a non-profit organization of 18 000 members in 105 countries with a network of over 100 local chapters plus more than 20 student chapters and seven senior chapters ae turkey chapter was established in cooperation with turkish society of kuwait and solitary engineers in turkey supports the scientific and educational activities of our colleagues in energy sector and promotes actions for sustainable development the association plans online international energy management certificate program and training such as certified energy managers for over 14 years female has been committed to advancing gender equality and empowering the roles of women in energy and environment sector accordingly similar turkey chapters let's start its actions in cooperation with ttmd in order to leverage opportunities for women in this sector today we will have our fourth webinar with dear danish council general anekte yaskiot and our valuable moderator who is museum arguing i would like to give the floor to gilda martin thank you so much thank you marion i would like to welcome you all again uh to our new session of the serial talks uh for those of you uh who are following us for the first time uh you may also want to take a look at the previous sessions uh which are on the associations uh downloaded on the association's youtube channel uh taking from what we have discussed the last time um in the last section i mentioned uh the recent undp report which is headed uh the next frontier human development and the anthropocene um so now the scientists are discussing that we are answering or have already entered a new geological age uh which is called the anthropocene uh namely the human age uh this is different from the past ages because in the past geological stages nature was the major transformer of our planet but this time in this age humans have become the major actors in transforming the planets and we are doing a bad job actually at it because we put uh enormous pressure on our ecosystem and endangering many species actually uh including ourselves um two decades ago maybe even a decade ago we were reading reports on how our actions will affect uh the climate and our world in general maybe today we don't even need to read these reports any longer because we are actually witnessing what is going on uh we are the maybe maybe the next generations will define us as the first generation to witness these drastic changes uh just a couple of days ago i'm sure that you may follow on the news uh a huge glacier burst in in the himalayas um destroying a dam uh causing massive flooding and then uh devastating the living areas nearby causing death and injuries unfortunately i mean we don't even need to look far away uh istanbul one of the major cities in turkey is facing risk of shortage of water because it just simply doesn't rain uh in the middle of winter it just started raining but it's not enough it's just to save the day actually but on the contrary in another city ismich which is just like five hours uh drive away uh has received almost 20 percent of uh its annual rainfall in just one day so we faced with many different drastic climate changes uh now so it's apparent that uh we need to take action if we want to develop and survive at the same time but our actions should be climate positive sustainable and circular actions and we need to start it from now so that the next generations uh may call us the first generation to take real action uh towards climate change and uh adapting the climate change and to have a sustainable world having said that um today we are delighted to have uh danish constable general mr nette gasquet with us i would like to welcome and thank you for being here today with us um and uh we will have an half an hour discussion uh about these topics then uh we will have a 10 to 15 minutes q a session so dear participants please uh write down your questions and at the end of the discussion session we'll have the opportunity to have discuss them as well so um my first uh discussion point uh consul general um how do you perceive the current global situation and the uh the situation globally and at the eu level do you think that's really uh action is about to take place uh towards a more sustainable world or are we just still discussing how important it is to have climate positive economy is it now an urgent matter of action now thank you very much and uh and let me start by thanking you for inviting me here today it's my great pleasure uh to again be attending a webinar with you as the moderator uh was another scenery last time but i was very happy with the invitation and as always we from denmark are very happy with sharing our views and and experiences on this matter i think that you may say that the one of the only positive things that have come out of the corona crisis is actually that uh the eu among others have realized that it is now or never and in order to actually restore the economy which has been so badly bruised during the last year we need to also look at sustainable green solutions to this the eu already in 2013 adopted quite a an ambitious um climate action plan and this was followed by um by the paris agreement in 2015 which was a a global agreement and it's so nice to see that the us with the uh uh shift of presidency and president biden re-entering uh the the paris agreement now we also again have the u.s backing this that was the next step and the third step in the climate change discussion was the adaption of the sustainable development goals as we all know in 2015 also i put a global focus on sustainability and to a very large extent sustainability within the environmental issues um so i think actually all the eu countries and the eu as such have been focusing um a lot the last seven years on climate change and climate change impact and environmental challenges but to be frank i think the push that we all needed and especially certain eu countries that haven't really taken this agenda as serious for many reasons i think not out of bad will but also from an economic challenging position some of the less fortunate eu countries have had very many difficulties with this and um a country like denmark of course we have um we're so small and we we have been uh have been lucky that we've had the financial means to actually put action behind uh the plans that we have been making but i will i will return to the danish perspective but from the eu side uh i think this corona crisis has meant that everybody all the heads of government have decided that it's now or never and also the countries that were reluctant to follow this agenda have given in and uh backed up this enormous new green deal plan that the eu has uh has decided they the eu has put more than 1.8 trillion euros behind uh re-uh covering the european economy um with the eu recovery fund we are seeing a never seen before amount of money resources forces put behind restoring the economy in europe with a very environmental and green focus it's a requirement for the countries in the eu that the initiatives that they will be doing to restore their economy locally in the 27 eu countries will be very uh focused on the green agenda and environmental issues and and green recovery so so yes i actually think there's hope um in uh in the future and i think that we have realized that we are so challenged by this uh pandemic that we do need to act and we do need to act in act in unity and together as eu okay from what i understand then the pandemic has actually accelerated the process towards taking real action for green recovery and sustainability maybe we can say that something good has come out of this bad experience um well turning to towards denmark's position uh on sustainability and actually uh within the context of maybe the climate action sdg and uh the sustainable cities perspective uh how do you what are your observation how is denmark doing in terms of uh green recovery well uh we are of course doing remarkably well we are but the thing is that that this is not new to denmark uh for many reasons already back in the 1970s denmark took some quite drastic uh steps towards a greener economy and this was not really driven by the knowledge that this is necessary from a climate perspective but it was driven by an economic notion that the oil prices were too high back in the 70s for us to afford because at that time we hadn't recovered any of our own uh oil uh resources this was happening uh quite in parallel to the oil prices uh being uh very very high and at that time some very clever engineers came up with the notion of district energy and uh and started applying this principle that taking the leftover heat from coal-fired plants from factories and and and directing this heat into pipes under the cities and thereby uh you could you would use a resource which would otherwise become idle and you could heat up a whole city um in a much more economical way and at the same time this has now become a much more environmental friendly way but it was not something that we can say we were very foresighted and we had the idea that the climate was threatened already back in the 17th and therefore we had to to come up with uh with a new plan it was simply an economic pressing matter that forced us to think differently at these times and and today a city like copenhagen is 99 heated by district energy and the whole country of denmark more than 60 percent of denmark is heated with district energy and the beauty of district energy is that the source you put behind the uh the piping system that you put into place in the cities that can be a sustainable source so from using coal fired uh power plants and uh and fossil fuels uh to to heat up the cities uh through just district energy we actually can now use biomass and fire plants and solar energy and with the new power 2x technology we're hoping we might be able at some point also to use wind power um and so it's it's uh it's proven to be uh a super sustainable uh way of of transforming your energy consumption and um and therefore you know it's it's nice to sometimes be lucky to uh to have uh one challenge and then when you solve it you actually solve another challenge and this is a little bit the same with the pandemic we have a huge challenge but now we realize that if we uh pull our forces together we might actually also at the same time be able to do something uh about the uh the environmental challenge which is threatening the whole world and also a country like denmark and so after that we we put 37 national targets in place to implement the sdgs and in 2018 we did a status report and we are doing quite well on all the parameters the un has complemented denmark for its progress in implementing the sdgs and the sdgs have become um a natural uh element in discussing business in denmark it's uh it's embedded in everything we do uh every business in denmark has somewhere in their business plan the mentioning of the relevant sgd that they are working with be it healthcare and stg3 be it water and sdg6 energy as the d7 it's it's all um become natural uh talk on the on the on the the director level of all the large danish companies so that's uh i think a very uh that's very good news one of the latest uh news that we have is that uh we have just decided to build a huge offshore wind farm which is really the largest uh ever built and uh and this will increase our energy uh electricity generation from wind by around 12 this will happen a total capacity of 407 megawatt with 20 49 wind turbines uh and it will cover annual electricity consumption of about uh 500 000 danish households so it's a it's a huge project and um and today uh almost 70 percent of our electricity consumption is based on renewable energy and uh and of course we're quite uh proud of that and and very happy that we can be a frontrunner in this way but uh but of course we also realize that it's much easier for a country of five million people which is like a third of the city of istanbul in which i'm so happy to uh to be a resident these days uh and and therefore things are probably easier for us but but at the same time it's good to see that our government is very serious about the plan that they made when they came into office in 2019 their their plan very quickly they came out and said that by 2030 we would be 70 percent uh co2 neutral in denmark and as you probably know the eu goal is to be co2 neutral by 2050 for all of the eu countries so in that way we are we are trying to front run uh the eu agenda and a city like copenhagen expects to be co2 neutral by 2025 as the first capital in the world uh and and denmark and copenhagen has actually proven to uh to put action behind their their goals uh for the last 25 years so i have very big hope that this will actually be possible but it's only four years from now so so they are they're quite busy uh implementing all the right strategies that will facilitate this great so um maybe the turning point for denmark was the oil crisis and then um in 50 years there has been a real change to our sustainability it's a very good uh example actually for all of us but of course as you have mentioned uh the scales are very important at the moment and the the size of the country the population uh differs from country to country and it's a challenge as well both economically and socially it's also the uh i think uh the people of denmark has the reflex or the culture to be sustainable right now after 50 years of uh you know the behavioral change towards uh having a more green uh life and that's also very important the policies uh the implementations but at the same time people people's behaviors uh need to shift towards a more sustainable approach as well so having said that how how would you uh what are your observations uh now living in also in istanbul uh about turkey's uh approach to these issues what do you think about that i think turkey is taking these issues very serious and and we fortunately have a lot of very good examples of this and we have very good cooperation with both local government and the government in ankara on on sustainable and sustainability and and energy and environmental related actions so if i can mention uh one of the the main ones it's that we back in in 2015 launched what we call government to government corporation uh in the danish foreign ministry and in 2017 we signed the first agreement with okay i think the uh connection uh with console general is now a little bit unstable so we cannot hear her at the moment just if we can just wait for a few minutes i also would like to remind you that you may write down any questions if there are to the q a box okay here you are again you're you're muted at the moment if you can i'm back again um you know i'm sorry about that but it might have been my um i don't know how much of all my babbling you uh you managed to uh [Laughter] record um but i don't know what was the last uh what was the last thing that you managed to hear uh well you were talking about uh the governmental cooperation between turkey and denmark the last time you were okay very good uh so um this corporation was uh was initiated in 2017 and is about district energy and offshore wind and we renewed the um or we signed a new agreement in 2019 for a three-year extension of this cooperation and uh it is quite um a successful corporation in the sense that the danish energy agency in copenhagen is advising uh the climate and or the ministry of energy in ankara on a new heat legislation so trying to to find measures of of putting a framework of legislation around the around heating and this could also be a way of introducing district energy that i talked about before in turkey and this would be very applicable for uh for turkey since it's it's very useful in cities where there's a dense number of houses and turkey is more than eighty percent uh uh urbanized today uh and therefore you know with a lot of new buildings and houses being built all the time uh in the in the larger cities uh of turkey and and this kind of energy um sourcing is is super useful and you can start by taking the the gas or oil or coal-fired power plants and put them behind the system and then gradually transition into into a more green energy source but the energy efficiency you get out of implementing this is quite uh is quite important and and quite amazing and we've been taking danish companies like danfoss and converse and aet to see the the government in uh in turkey in and also to visit different local governments around in the country and it seems that there is a huge interest and appetite for uh for danish technology which of course is is a great pleasure for us but also being able to just have this government to government cooperation where there's no uh business or no in involved is is that's where the the sort of strategic discussions occur and then the businesses can come afterwards and show how we have done it in denmark and uh and luckily we've seen a very big appetite for this the the latest initiative we are doing now with the turkish union of municipalities and marmara union of municipalities is on water management because as you said uh istanbul is water deprived because it's not raining enough and so um we have entered into a cooperation with these union of municipalities together with a danish utility called oahu's van ohus is the second largest city in denmark and oswan is providing technical assistance to the municipalities through uh four webinars we have already had one next week we have the next one or this week uh i think it's next week and uh and two more and we've seen an enormous interest from the turkish municipalities in learning about how have we managed to become this successful in our water management denmark is purely sourced by groundwater and and we have we have managed to introduce really efficient waste water uh management and clean drinking water technologies and of course we're very happy to transfer some of this knowledge uh to turkey uh if if anybody's interested and as i can see a lot of people are very interested in this so so that's very positive and this in istanbul then also coincides with istanbul city being a member of the big climate change organization c40 they are now being offered technical assistance uh also in respect of water and water management in a pro in a program which is sponsored by danish company confess and run by c40 and also actually with the technical assistance from copenhagen municipality so it's uh it's another very good example of good cooperation between denmark and turkey and in this water uh project we're also using the turkish consultancy rec that are coming up with a very interesting report on water management in turkey for us to use in in this project um and the last thing i want to mention is that we in october last year had a joint economic consultation with the minister of trade in ankara and the foreign ministry in uh in copenhagen trade uh foreign trade matters belong to the foreign ministry and the trade council is part of the ministry of foreign affairs and this is why it was our minister of foreign affairs discussing with your minister for trade and it was a very positive discussion and the bottom line was that the two billion dollars in trade among our countries that we have right now should definitely become a much larger amount uh so uh so we have decided uh that we should definitely continue this positive cooperation and see how we can increase the trade volume between uh our countries great it's it's really great to hear that there's this uh cooperation between uh the two countries the local governments and the government uh showing uh much interest in uh this cooperation and uh if you may maybe just point out uh how do you think the businesses in turkey uh are approaching uh this uh sustainability and uh climate positive growth issue uh in terms of uh you know uh if the turkish businesses the trading with uh foreign countries need to be really very careful about what is to come uh in terms of uh borders uh carbon border applications so how do you think that turkish businesses are approaching uh to this issue at the moment i think turkish businesses are very much aware that 60 of the trade volume goes to the eu and with eu becoming much more focused on climate change issues and environmental impact of technologies there is a pressing need for turkey to show that you can produce uh goods in a more sustainably friendly manner and and i think that is happening right now i we have a lot of of good turkish uh partners that are very interested in uh in dealing with danish companies in in learning about you know what are we doing in denmark which kind of technologies are the the most applicable how can we do partnerships together how can we learn from each other both within energy and water but also within agriculture and food and food production sustainable food production and focus on food security and food less food loss is is very interesting to turkish companies and the chairman of the turkish danish business council mr emre inches he is the head of tech fan agro and he's very interested in increasing the trade volume between denmark and turkey also within sustainable food production and he's uh doing a great job in promoting turkish danish business corporation he's uh it's a it's a business council under dake and uh and and so we are very happy to see that that there's a positive attitude towards what we're trying to achieve in denmark and and we we only meet i think positive engagements all around with anybody that we speak to be it local government be it government in accra or be it turkish business uh businesses or business organizations um so in that respect uh i'm very positive that there is a as a that's definitely a basis for increasing the trade volumes between the countries another area is uh sustainable textile production uh turkey of course is a huge producer of textiles and this uh is denmark is sourcing a lot of its textiles from turkey a lot of the big danish brands are sourcing from turkey and with the focus uh on or near storing and sourcing from europe that we see now because of the pandemic where sourcing became very challenged from china and the far east i think turkey has a brilliant opportunity of stepping in as a very attractive uh uh alternative to uh to sourcing from the far east in a more sustainable manner because transportation is less and technologies in turkey are more advanced in many ways than they are in uh in some of the countries in the far east so i think also here this basis of increasing the trade volume between the countries yeah very important opportunities that you are mentioning at the moment um well um maybe lastly i would like to just ask you again you you are giving us a very positive approach and i'm very happy it's also a realistic one actually i think that um we are uh not only turkey or denmark it glow at the global level we are capable of as humans uh to have a sustainable uh world uh at the end how do you how do you really perceive uh in the next 10 years do you really think that in terms of uh fulfilling the sdgs and shifting towards maybe more of a circular economy is it really going to be a change that we will feel we will witness in our lifetime uh because there is this recent report from circle economy i think that last year they they have measured again as they they did always the circularity gap report they are mentioning it's around eight the world is around like eight point six percent to nine percent circular only um do you really think that we will have a real uh change in uh the next decade or so what would you say i hope so uh but things take time you know as i said we we began the transition in denmark in the 70s and now we're doing really well for the last years but still we have a long way to go if we want to be co2 neutral by 20 30 or 70 percent by 2030 and i think in a country like turkey with 82 million people and a a total different uh economic situation than we have in denmark it's it's definitely um a huge task it's a super tanker that needs to be turned around but i think we see positive signals coming out of the government in agra and with the smart city strategy being launched last year in january putting a very ambitious target on the cities as to introducing new sustainable urbanization measures both in respect of energy and water and climate i think there are absolutely the will uh and i think there's also the interest both from the eu and from uh and you know in countries like denmark uh i think there are challenges uh we see now luckily that that the the discussions between the eu countries and turkey are opening up so that's very positive um and we see that uh that companies and and municipalities and government wants to be more focused on the climate actions and we see that there's an interest from the companies going to turkey but we still have huge issues in turkey like we all know there's the um that the the danish companies and european companies have to be ensured that they can trust rule of law when they come to establish themselves in turkey that's an issue there's an issue on human rights we see differently on these issues and and this is very important to europeans and to also to danish companies so there are some structural uh issues in turkey that that i hope the government will be working with which will encourage even more european companies to uh to trade with with turkey whether we in our time will see a real transition it's a good question because it does really take a lot of time but i can see that the next generation my children and uh and the generation of uh that are in their 20s are much more focused on climate impact on eating in a different manner on working for sustainable uh courses so so in that way i i have hopes that the next generations uh are actually born into a world where this is very necessary where those of us who are not it can be difficult to to uh to change the attitudes of us 50 pluses you know and our lifestyle and our red meat on the plate uh every day and these kind of things uh but i think it will change and i think it's the little things that will uh matter if we all think about what can we do you know how can we recycle how can we maybe eat a little less meat every day maybe we travel a little bit less that's not an issue right now because we don't travel anywhere but and that has had a positive impact on the world uh last year in respect of of less air traffic but but uh when the world opens again and i'm saying a very big win because i am a positive optimistic soul um when the world opens again i hope that people will think twice about uh how they live and how they travel and and i think if we all just do a little bit uh that combined with the goodwill of uh the governments and of the companies and initiatives like the sdgs and like the paris agreement organizations like c40 all that combined gives me hope that we will get there and we will move towards a more sustainable lifestyle and reach the 1.5 percent and
hopefully not see so many of these horrible natural catastrophes we also had a big one in norway recently uh just before christmas uh and of course that's it's devastating the earthquakes in croatia uh there are lots of examples uh that reminds us every day that this is very important but but i think it starts with you and me and our habits and uh and then hopefully it will all trickle up and down uh and gives us hope that things will change excellent really very very positive messages and i completely agree actually i'm also hopeful about the future as well and maybe really the next generations will say that this generation messed up a little but uh also found its way to a more sustainable world um just checking whether we have any questions from the audience at the moment um [Music] but uh i think i've asked all the questions so no there are no questions from the audience for now i'm just checking again but i think yeah okay we we know we have no questions at the moment from the audience and uh but i i it's it was a very nice uh discussion and really very very important points that you have mentioned uh and i hope that uh we will at least see uh the changes within our lifetimes even if it is not so much but it starts with small stop steps as you have mentioned we will change ourselves first and then the big change will come hopefully inshallah thank you thank you very much for being here with us today and hope to see you in another webinar hopefully or maybe even for a coffee in istanbul when we can uh we are allowed to do that again very much very much so okay maybe you come to izmir whenever you come i can also have you for coffee thank you thank you so much for inviting me again and uh and uh very very nice and very important the subjects that you're bringing up and and i really like your your equal opportunity focus also and it's a pleasure to be here two women discussing all of these important matters and i think we will continue hopefully changing things to the positive thank you so much thank you um well uh dear participants thank you very much for watching us uh see you next time in the serial talks
2021-02-27