What COVID-19 Pandemic Tries to Tell Us About Climate Change

EU and UNDP in Turkey join forces to mark Climate Diplomacy Week

October 26, 2020

Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, and the Resident Representative of UNDP in Turkey, Claudio Tomasi, co-hosted today an online press event with the participation of the Deputy Minister of Environment and Urbanisation Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Birpinar and the President of Union of Municipalities of Turkey and the Mayor of Gaziantep Fatma Sahin to launch the EU Climate Diplomacy Week 2020.

This year, representatives of two global advocates of ambitious climate action, the EU Delegation to Turkey (EUD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Turkey joined forces to emphasize the importance of reducing our vulnerabilities against the risks of climate change.

This year’s Climate Diplomacy Week will focus its activities around vulnerabilities to climate change. Throughout the dates of 2 – 13 November, journalists, civil society, academics, business community, public institutions and citizens will discuss this theme from different perspectives.

The EU Delegation to Turkey and UNDP Turkey invites everyone to join the climate action campaign. The Climate Diplomacy Week will host a social media campaign, an outdoor awareness campaign, webinars, press-meetings, and many more. We encourage you all to join the campaign and activities, organise your own events, share your climate action stories and spread the word.

On this occasion:

The Head of EU Delegation to Turkey Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut said:

“The EU Climate Diplomacy Weeks provide unique opportunities to expand our dialogue, not only with the governments, but also with other actors and citizens like business community,         academics, civil society organisations, local authorities and activists. The EU Delegation to Turkey is organizing EU Climate Diplomacy Weeks (CDW) since 2016. We encourage and invite all of you and citizens of Turkey to join our campaign and spread the word through the public activities and through our social media campaign.”

The UNDP Turkey Resident Representative Claudio Tomasi said:

“We need ambitious climate action, and we need it urgently. If we fail to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5°C, we will likely pass a tipping point where we will experience catastrophic disasters and irreversible changes. Our message is one of hope and a call for action. Our campaign centers around the idea that everything we do is affecting and will be affected by the climate crisis, and no matter what we do, what we want, and what we need, everything will depend on whether we can keep our 1.5 degrees promise. The campaign’s message #WeAreTheClimate and #WeWillChange is an invitation to everyone. We all have things we can do as individuals, companies, institutions… or as doctors, farmers, teachers, journalists… Our impact will grow stronger if we act collectively. But the time to act is now!”

Our motto for this year is #WeAreTheClimate and #WeWillChange for a liveable, sustainable and climate-neutral future.

Join us from here:

To follow the Climate Diplomacy Week events click here and here.

To access the assets of the campaign, please follow this link.

For press inquiries

Miray Akdağ – Press Officer
EU Delegation to Turkey
miray.akdag@eeas.europa.eu

Faik Uyanık – Head of Communication
UNDP Turkey
faik.uyanik@undp.org

Background Information:

2020 marks the 5th year of the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement but it will be remembered with the turbulence created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Keeping in mind that the choices made today will define tomorrow and the future, societies are at a cross-road where they need to decide whether to follow a path for a more sustainable future or to keep the system vulnerable and open to shocks like Covid-19 and the consequences of climate change.

After the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, calls for a more ambitious climate action to governments became more frequently expressed in social movements by individuals, particularly the youth, and many other actors. Coupled with the narrowing timeline to keep the global temperature increase below 1,5 degrees by 2050, implementing ambitious climate action policies to address the climate crisis became urgent and vital for nations.

Global actors such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) are promoting the necessity of urgent climate action for decades. Sadly, the plans and pledges, which the nations put forward, are still short of closing the ambition, emission and adaptation gaps to reach climate neutrality until mid-century. This indicates that advocacy towards more timely, efficient and effective climate action is still a strong need at national and local levels.

The Covid-19 pandemic, served as an “in vivo” experiment showing the global impact of a systemic shock.  The way out, requires a green path. We all have to accept the fact that it will never be "business as usual" anymore and get on to the next stage: Building a New Life! If 1,5 degrees by 2050 is the vital necessity of that New Life, Global Goals and Green Deal are the bricks to build it. If we are all in this storm, all stakeholders have to own up this change and stand up to this crisis.

The EU is known for its strong and ambitious climate action policy, which follows long-term targets and is implemented through a strong legislative and political framework. Last year in 2019, the EU re-affirmed its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and put forward an inclusive growth strategy aiming at reaching a climate neutral European continent by 2050: the European Green Deal. The European Green Deal is a bold commitment of the EU for a better environmental protection, expanded access to clean energy, ensuring food safety and security together with better jobs and opportunities for the society towards climate neutrality. The European Green Deal is at the same time an integral part of the EU’s strategy to implement the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as one of the global advocates of ambitious climate action, provides guidance to nations for many years on how to mitigate the underlying factors and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. One recent initiative of UNDP on this front is the Climate Promise Programme, which was launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019. The Climate Promise supports over 100 countries, including Turkey, to enhance their climate action through five service lines as: (i) build political will and societal ownership, (ii) review, align and update existing targets, policies and measures, (iii) incorporate new sectors and greenhouse gases, (iv) access costs and investment opportunities, and (v) monitor progress and strengthen transparency.

More About Climate Diplomacy Week