By Nneka Nwogwugwu
COP26 President Alok Sharma is on a visit to Turkey from Monday 4 – Wednesday 6 July to progress and strengthens the delivery of the landmark Glasgow Climate Pact, following COP26 held in Glasgow last year.
Mr. Sharma’s visit to Turkey will continue the work of the UK COP Presidency to press for updated climate commitments from all countries ahead of COP27 in Egypt, aligned with the crucial goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.
Mr. Sharma will meet the Minister for Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, the Minister for Energy, and the Minister for Treasury and Finance to discuss how to build on the main achievements of the COP26 Conference and how the UK and Turkey can cooperate in delivering ambitious climate action.
During his visit, Mr. Sharma will also have a chance to see the UK-Türkiye collaboration in action, visiting a solar farm which represents UK Export Finance’s biggest ever guarantee for a solar project (£217m). Equivalent to over 4,600 football pitches in size, Turkey’s largest solar power plant will deliver clean electricity to approximately 2m Turkish households when completed in late 2022.
Ahead of his visit, Mr. Sharma said: “I am very pleased to be in Turkey for the second time in just over a year. In 2022, all countries must honor the commitments made in the Glasgow Climate Pact to strengthen and revisit their 2030 emissions reduction targets this year.
“The transition to clean energy economies is accelerating around the world, including in Turkey. I welcome the commitment from President Erdogan towards climate action, including a 2053 net-zero emissions commitment, and look forward to seeing an updated NDC later this year.
