نقش زغال سنگ در سیاست انرژی و توسعه پایدار از ترکیه: آیا آن به سیاست انرژی اتحادیه اروپا سازگار است؟

This paper aims to assess the current and future role of coal in energy strategy of Turkey, and evaluates the compatibility of policies to the EU energy policy and strategy. Coal is regarded as the most important indigenous energy source in Turkey together with hydropower to strengthen the supply security of the country. Turkish government set targets to fully utilize coal reserves of the country in next decades. However, the country is also in the process of becoming an EU Member State, hence, it is expected that the energy policies have to comply with the EU. Moreover, Turkey ratified Kyoto Protocol in 2009, thus the country should limit CO2 emission together with other greenhouse gases. The probable obstacles that Turkey may face due to the utilization of coal were determined as CO2 emissions, lack of technology and application in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and health and safety issues. It is concluded that coal is a very important domestic energy source for Turkey but new policies have to be developed and adopted immediately, and more realistic targets for the country should be set accordingly.

Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (COM(2005) 24, 2005). It is a fundamental and overarching objective of the European Union (EU) set out in the Treaty, governing all the Union's policies and activities (EU-Council, 2006). By linking economic development, protection of the environment and social justice, it aims at the continuous improvement of the quality of life and well-being for present and future generations, and therefore concerns all citizens in the EU, as well as of the whole world. Among the scope of sustainable development energy, of course, occupies a significant place since it promotes the quality of life and provides economical and social progress. Furthermore, a competitive, reliable and sustainable energy sector is essential for an economy. Accordingly, the EU introduced a concept called “Energy Triangle representing the main elements of a new European Energy Policy (Fig. 1).As energy has such importance for humanity, a number of issues have been put under spotlight in recent years all around the world. These are: volatility in oil prices, interruptions to energy supply, inefficiency in connections between electricity networks, the difficulties for suppliers in accessing gas and electricity markets and increased attention to climate change. These issues have pushed energy towards the top of national and European agendas. Accordingly, the EU has adopted an energy policy aiming to maximize the use of renewable energy sources to reduce the dependence on fuel from non-member countries, to minimize emissions from carbon sources, and to decouple energy costs from oil prices. Furthermore, the Union's policy targets to constrain the demand by promoting energy efficiency both within the energy sector itself and at end-use. Fig. 2 shows the shares of fuels in gross inland consumption and in production of primary fuels in EU-27 by the year 2007, respectively.Coal was the main energy source not only in Europe but also worldwide until the 1960s. However, it began to lose its market share to oil due to the advances in oil extraction, conversion and application technologies as well as the entry of natural gas and nuclear power into the market at the beginning of 1970s. Coal started to be considered as an old-fashioned fuel for use in poorer countries since all these new energy sources were cleaner and even cheaper in some occasions. As a result, despite the rising energy demand, gross coal consumption in the EU-27 has been declining since 1987. Turkey is geographically located in close proximity to 72% of the world's proven gas and 73% of oil reserves, in particular to those in the Middle East and the Caspian basin. Thus, the country is regarded as a natural energy bridge between the source countries and consumer markets. Thus, in case of full membership, Turkey would have an important role in EU energy supply security inevitably. In the 9th Development Plan (2007–2013) of Turkey it was stated that supply of the energy required by economical development and social progress continuously, safely and at minimum cost is the main objective of the country. Furthermore, while supplying the energy keeping environmental harms at minimum levels and, efficient and provident use of energy are the main considerations. In the scope of sustainable energy, as parallel to the EU energy policy, Turkey's current energy policy primarily aims to maximize renewable energy potential within the next 15 years as Turkey is one of the EU-candidate countries. However, projections shows that total energy consumption would be much more than domestic energy production between 2010 and 2020 (Fig. 3). Moreover, Turkey is a net energy importing country. Thus, utilization of domestic energy sources is of great importance for the country for the next decades. Since Turkey does not have significant natural gas and oil reserves, coal has an important share (almost 55%) in the domestic energy production whereas its share in gross inland consumption is 29% by the year 2007 as shown in Fig. 4.

This paper mainly examines the role of coal in Turkey's energy policy as well as emphasizing its importance for the country in the context of sustainable development. Moreover, Turkey's policies towards coal within the overall energy policy of the country were assessed and compared to the EU policies taking energy strategies and environmental concerns into account. Main conclusions drawn are; (i) Coal is still one of the two most important domestic energy sources of Turkey to be utilized together with hydropower to strengthen the supply security of the country in near future. (ii) Turkey's energy policy has some internal conflictions towards coal as well as conflictions to the EU energy policy. Turkish government set targets to fully utilize domestic coal reserves and aims to decrease CO2 emissions at the same time. However, it is concluded that, in its current technological level in the country, utilization of coal to provide energy will be a solid obstacle in becoming an EU member state because of CO2 emissions. Currently, the EU seems to have been focused mostly on clean energy not coal. (iii) The cost of imported energy can be reduced to some extent by fully utilizing domestic coal reserves of the country but Turkey has to focus on developing and/or utilize CCS applications in coal-fired power plants to reduce CO2 emissions to comply both Kyoto Protocol's and the EU's requirements. Moreover, funding opportunities should be created towards CCS research and development projects. (iv) Health and safety issues are considered as another solid obstacle for the country for full membership to the EU. Necessary precautions have to be taken immediately to reduce the number of accidents in coal mining industry as well as other industries. (v) It is concluded that Turkey has to develop new energy policies, specifically for coal industry, which are more rational as well as revising the existing ones and set more realistic targets for the country to prevent the country to pass through “bottlenecks” in both energy related and environmental issues.