The effects of the renewable energy investments on sustainable development

Energy is one of the most important inputs of the contemporary economies. In order to produce goods and services, human beings need more energy than before. Parallel to the technological and economic development, the energy needs of human beings have been increasing steadily since the industrial revolution. Although the population and energy needs of the world have been increasing steadily, the world's energy needs have been mainly met by the fossil based energy resources. Since the distribution of the fossil based resources is not equal in the world, the countries having lack of fossil based energy resources are highly dependent on those countries having rich reserves. Therefore, any political or social instability can directly affect the supply of the energy and the price of these commodities can easily be hiked like being in 1974 and 1979 crisis. This reality, however, creates energy dependency for the countries which do not have enough energy resources and make their economy more fragile against the energy supply and price shocks. Therefore, to maintain energy security, reliable and cheap energy supply become priority of policy makers of the many developed and developing countries in the globalized world. Apart from the amount and distribution of fossil based reserves in the world, sustainability of the development depending on these energy types has been questioned since the beginning of the 1970s, because of the harmful environmental effects of fossil based energies. Global warming, climate changes, environmental pollution forced the United Nation to take precaution against the excessive usage of the fossil based resources. In this context, to decrease the gas emission and to limit the harmful effects some summits were organized by the UN. As a result of these summits, "Our Common Future" report was prepared and Kyoto Protocol was accepted by the UN members. Turkey is a poor country in terms of fossil-based energy sources. Therefore, the country's energy needs are met by paying at about 50 billion dollars to the importer countries every year. The country has experienced 15 economic crises throughout the republic periods and nearly all economic crises are directly or indirectly related with the current account deficit. As a result of economic crises, the social and political stability of the country was deeply affected and some undesired political coup or social events were lived in our country. However, when the energy import is excluded, the trade balance of Turkey is relatively balanced. Turkey does not have enough fossil based resources but its renewable energy potential is very high comparing with the European Union. Hence, it is believed that if they can be evaluated efficiently, renewable energy resources can make significant contribution to the sustainable development and growth of the country. In this study, the effects of the renewable energy investments, made under the sustainable development concept, on the social and political stability of Turkey were investigated. The analysis was based on the effects of the renewable energy investment to the current account deficit of Turkey. To make the concept more understandable, the renewable energies, their potential, current account deficit and economic crises experienced throughout the republic periods were investigated in detail. As a result of the study findings some recommendations were made in the conclusion section.