By Michaël Tanchum

July 18, 2023

The persistence of high food inflation in Turkey belies a deeper problem. Turkish agrifood production cannot adequately cope with increasing water scarcity due to climate change. Challenging Turkey’s own food security, the growing crisis also threatens Turkey’s role as a food supplier to Europe and the Middle East. Regional food supply chain breakdowns due to a decline in Turkish production would create a debilitating economic impact on both regions. Advanced agri-tech solutions can mitigate these problems, presenting an opportunity for Ankara to create a new area of strategic cooperation between Turkey and its Western and Middle Eastern partners.

Mehveş Evin on Diken news site asks how willing Turkey is to take part in the global efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions. Turkey’s increase of emissions is cause for shame. Turkey ranks as the 14^th biggest emission source among the countries of the world. Among the fifty eight countries that are responsible for ninety percent of the emissions, Turkey occupies the 50^th place; it thus ranks among those who have the worst record when it comes to climate change performance. WVF predicts that if Turkey does not change course, its greenhouse emissions will increase two and a half times within the coming fifteen years, reaching nearly two billion tons. At the Paris summit, Turkey committed to limit its emissions to nine hundred and twenty nine tons. However, in that scenario, Turkey’s per capita emissions will be bigger than those of such countries as Japan, Germany and Great Britain. Unfortunately, as long as we don’t abandon energy policies that rely on coal for producing electricity, we are destined to face disasters and wars that will be caused by climate change…