government of Turkey established the way toward the environment protection , energy polices and increased the efficiency of the economy ( Bilen et al . 2008 ).
Since 1991 , Turkey started to utilize from its energy sources that considered renewable energy due to its benefit in GHG emissions reduction and other environmental issues . So , it started with geothermal energy , solar thermal energy and hydropower energy . Investment can increased significantly due to the fixed feed in tariffs and purchase obligation for distribution companies under the proposed new Renewable Energy Law . Thus , Turkey implemented strategies to produce electricity from nuclear power plant and decreasing the reliance on energy imports . But , this procedure need a lot of studies for the investment cost , waste disposal , safety and other issues related to nuclear power plant ( Bilen et al . 2008 ).
According to Kaygusuz ( 2009 ), sustainable environmental practices became the preference in Turkey ’ s Eight Five Year Development Plan for 2001 – 2005 . Moreover , the National Environmental Action Plan ( NEAP ) worked to increase the energy and environment awareness by implementing several strategies . The big challenge is the demand of energy have been increased ( growth of economy ) while , the low carbon emission is the target . As mentioned above , burning of fossil fuels emit GHG which cause a climatic change . So , the regulation for the next 20 years will be highly aware of accommodating between the energy and world ’ s climate . These sustainable regulations will affect the economy of the future . The steps toward this issue started with the National Climate Coordination Group then , a National Climate Program was developed in the scope of the United Nations Framework - Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ). Moreover , International Energy Agency ’ s ‘‘ business as usual ’’ scenarios have been already put the regulations at the mid of 2006 ( Kaygusuz 2009 ).
Moreover , practices in solid waste management have been conducted . Since 1950s , industry sectors started to recycle the glass , plastic , metal and papers . Thus , it recycle more than two millions of junk metal each year , since it considered one of the biggest importing country of junk metal . Recycling the waste of the household has been accomplished mainly for the packaging waste . Separating the recyclable materials has been completed since 1993 . A lot of strategies toward MSW management were implemented in Turkey ( Metin et al . 2003 ).
Sustainable Solutions : A Proposed Sustainability Package
The mentioned issues identified above need to be solved by creating a proposal for sustainable strategies . These strategies will help in decreasing the GHG emissions , reducing climate change and thus improving the air quality in Turkey . Therefore , health and the life of the social will be improved .
Clean and Sustainable Energy Toklu et al . ( 2010 ) ensured that Turkey ’ s geographic location encourage to shift from the non-renewable energy to the clean energy . Haluzan ( 2015 ) mentioned some of the renewable energy advantages comparing with the fossil fuels . These advantages include :
• Renewables allow for the private sectors to participate in energy production , so it provides more jobs for the citizens . This will give the country an excellent opportunity to boost with its economy .
• It decreases the reliance on the foreign oil and stop importing it from other countries . Increasing the reliance on the existing renewable sources will improve the energy security and energy independence . Thus , the country will get the benefit from its natural resources instead of
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