Closing Meeting organized within the context of “Power the Revolution for Climate Action Project” was held on 13 June 2019, under the auspices of Denizli Metropolitan Municipality. In the event, Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General, moderated the session titled “Building Environmentally Resilient Cities”.
According to the Denizli Climate Change Action Plan prepared within the context of this project, it is expected that greenhouse gas emission will increase to 12 million tons by 2030. However, it is targeted in the action plan to limit the emissions with 9 million tons, %21 percent reduction, which is in parallel with the national plan of Turkey. According to the Plan, Denizli’s 2016-2030 per capita emission increase will be limited to 7%. The plan also includes 36 adaptation actions for Denizli, which is facing the risk of changing from semi-arid climate to arid climate in the coming years. In the preparation of this plan, funded by the EU, REC Turkey had an active role especially for developing the action plans related to reduction and adaptation.
In the session “Building Environmentally Resilient Cities” moderated by Secretary General Duman; Seda Özdemir, Representative of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality; Ömür Can Kurtuluş, Representative of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality; Ana Romero Calix, Representative of Barcelona Municipality; and Erdoğan Karaca, representative of Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning addressed the participants. Speaking in the opening of the session, Secretary General Duman pointed out that Goal 6 on “Clean Water and Sanitation”, Goal 7 on “Affordable and Clean Energy”, and Goal 12 on “Responsible Production and Consumption” are directly relevant with the environmental sustainability. Adding that Goal 13 on “Climate Action”, Goal 14 on “Life Below Water” and Goal 15 on “Life on Land” also address the environmental quality and resilience, Duman noted that Goal 11 on “Sustainable Cities and Communities” is the intersection point for raising awareness about environmental issues and the cities.
Prior to the conference, meetings were organized with delegates of The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, and Carbon Disclosure Project. In these meetings, activities conducted within the context of developing cooperation with the above-mentioned institutions were reviewed. As part of the program, Ali Değirmenci, President of Denizli City Council, and Professor Mahmud Güngör, Director General of Denizli Water and Sewerage Administration, were visited. UCLG-MEWA Delegation lastly paid a visit to Osman Zolan, Mayor of Denizli, and discussed possible cooperation areas between the municipality and UCLG-MEWA.