Investigation of international environmental and social standards in energy investments in Turkey and assessment of the differences between national environmental impact assessment standards

Today, due to the rapidly increasing population and economic developments, energy consumption increases and the need for energy projects developed to meet energy production is also increasing. One of the most basic initial steps for implementing the energy projects in Turkey is the permitting process along with the decision process of "Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Positive Decision". In order to carry out the project, it is important to realize that the financial resources should be provided. During the funding process of energy projects, due to the high project cos, project financing is mostly preffered, instead of using equity. In case of financing is provided by international financial institutions, the project will be assessed according to the international environmental and social standards determined by these institutions. In this study, the evaluation of the differences and similarities between the international environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) standards and national environmental impact assessment (EIA) standards in case of financing energy investments in Turkey, has been carried out. For this purpose, Environmental Legislation, Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process in Turkey was investigated in the second part of this study. The EIA process, which is crucial for the realization of the energy investments, is the most important process. In EIA process, the applicability of the Project and the examination of the environmental impacts of the project site, depends on the technical, socioeconomic and economic conditions of the Project, are also investigated. At the end of the evaluation of the EIA process, in case of having a positive evaluation, the "EIA Positive Decision" is given and the investment can be passed on. In the third part of the study, the environmental and social standards that are expected to be implemented and enforced by the investor in order to provide the relevant financing of international financial institutions have been examined. This review is based on the Equator Principles (EP) and Performance Standards (PS) of the World Bank (WB) and implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which serves as the private sector arm of the WB. In the light of these standards, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) process is summarized. In the fourth part of the study, the EIA process is compared with the ESIA process which are expected to implement by the investors in compliance with the environmental and social standards by the international financial institutions in order to provide the required project financing. In this comparison, the differences and similarities in the processes are presented in general. In addition to this, similarities and differences were also examined by comparing the format of ESIA Report with the EIA Report Special Format, which is provided from a sample EIA Report Special Format of a thermal power plant projects in Turkey. Moreover, the process flow is exemplified by examining the practices and activities that are carried out for a natural gas combined cycle power plant projects in Turkey on the basis of the EIA and ESIA process. In the fifth part of the study, a general evaluation of the differences and similarities in the EIA and ESIA processes has been used to establish a preliminary research resource to determine the potential improvement areas in the existing processes and practices in the process. In this context, this subject is detailed in the fourth part of the work and the differences were basically given as nine (9) items and the similarities were given as five (5) items. With this study, it is aimed to create a preliminary study and provide a resource for not only investors and professionals working on this subject but also for the experts in official institutions and authorities. Finally, one of the main targets of this study is that it will increase the awareness of EIA and ESIA processes. In this context, resource management will be more efficient in project development phase and investors will be able to anticipate the necessary steps in these processes in order to avoid time and cost losses.