The Paris conference and Turkey

Before the climate conference in Paris, there were huge "climate justice" demonstrations all over the world. The concept of climate justice is a new one that has emerged in recent years. It demands the addressing of production, consumption and commerce forms that generate climate change.  

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Australia, Japan, Bangladesh and Philippines for climate justice. 

It has been calculated that 30 million people will have to leave their houses and land by 2050 because of floods, erosion and the contamination of drinking water caused by climate change. 

Turkey is one of the countries that will be affected the most from drought but because we wake up every day to a darker day than yesterday, we are in no position to think about climate change. 

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we heard from olive growers at the Ayval?k Olive Harvest Days about how drought has affected our growers, including olive trees.

Products such as olives, wheat, apricots, hazelnuts, walnuts, which has reached the price of almost 100 Turkish Liras a kilo, and grapes in Turkey are only a few of these that are affected by drought, frost and floods.

In France, vine growers are alarmed. French winemakers have noticed that for the last 30 years, the alcohol in wine has increased every decade. Research is being conducted to figure out how vineyards can harmonize with climate change. 

Also, Europe has pledged to decrease greenhouse gasses by 40 percent by 2030 and it will achieve this by saying goodbye to "historic coal dependency." 

On the other hand, Turkey's dependence on coal is increasing. The "Coal Report" prepared by Sabanc? University's Istanbul Policy Center has shown that with...