Investigation of sustainable green economy in the example of Türkiye

The global economy has recently faced a series of challenges, including the 2008 financial crisis, the Russia-Ukraine War, the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, and conflicts in the Middle East. The concept of the Green Economy offers nature-centric and competitive economic development as a promising structural solution. Among the three prominent perspectives on the Green Economy, the optimistic pro-green growth view is articulated through the lens of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), while the growth-agnostic perspective serves as a critique of this optimistic stance. The optimistic pro-green growth perspective posits that technological advancements and economic development are key to addressing environmental challenges. In contrast, the growth-agnostic perspective argues that neither economic growth nor environmental sustainability alone is sufficient; instead, the primary focus should be on ensuring the continuity of social welfare. Each perspective has its own internal coherence and aspects requiring empirical validation. Within this framework, developing and implementing theoretically sound, welfare-centered green sustainable development plans emerges as a challenging yet necessary endeavor. However, the case of Scandinavian countries, which have made significant strides in this area, demonstrates that such an undertaking is not impossible. The third perspective, known as the degrowth approach, represents a school of thought advocating for economic contraction. In the third part of this study, the theoretical structure of the Green Economic Model, which has recently become increasingly popular, was examined within the scope of the literature and then an empirical analysis was made in the light of the data set belonging to Türkiye. An empirical analysis is conducted in the context of the Turkish economy. To test the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, advocated by optimistic green growth proponents, the ARDL model and error correction method are employed. The model reveals the long-term relationship between environmental pollution and economic growth, showing that Turkey surpassed the turning point of its environmental pollution curve relative to economic growth in 2015. The long-term coefficients of the model support the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. According to the estimation results of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the Turkish economy has entered a phase of relatively reduced environmental pollution since 2015.