The impact of remote working on Türkiye's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions: Learning from the experiences of COVID-19 era

The first Covid-19 case was announced on March 11, 2020 in Türkiye. The transformation of the disease into a global epidemic has radically changed the way of doing business. Remote working emerged as an important alternative to office working. As part of this transformation, Türkiye put in force this practice in certain months of 2020 and 2021, which led to serious decline in energy consumption. The first aim of this study is to find out the contribution of remote working on reducing Türkiye's energy consumption in car fuel (diesel, gasoline, LPG) and electricity in case the country's whole potential is used. The second aim is to reveal the contribution of this decline in energy consumption on reducing Türkiye's greenhouse gas emissions. The third goal is to determine the possible drivers for the permanent implementation of remote working when the outbreak is over. Although it is presumable to expect a fall in car fuel consumption as a result of remote working, this study revealed that it also decreased electricity consumption. According to the results, in a scenario where Türkiye's remote working potential is fully utilized, the country can reduce 1.8 million tons of oil equivalent of it's energy consumption which corresponds to 1.66% of the total energy consumption and 1.4 billion USD dollars with 2019 prices. With a total of 7.73 million tons carbon dioxide equivalent GHG emission mitigation, Türkiye will be able to reduce its transport related emissions by 3.2% and electricity related emissions by 3.79%. Therefore, considering that Türkiye is a net fossil fuel importer country and a party to the Paris Agreement, it is necessary to promote remote and hybrid working as a complementary energy efficiency and climate change policy. While this study aims to reveal the benefits of working remotely in reducing the consumption of refined petroleum products and electricity under normal conditions by making use of the experiences of the pandemic period, it is beneficial to investigate the effect of remote working on energy consumption, including natural gas, during energy crises such as the Russia-Ukraine War in future studies.