Evaluation of Turkish environmental legislation within the scope of green port applications

Transportation has an important place in the information and service transfer mechanism for communication between people and their environment. The fact that it is a country surrounded by seas on three sides, has a coastline of approximately 8330 km and its strategic and geopolitical location between Asia and Europe carries maritime transportation to an even more important place for Turkey. The high level of vulnerability of ports to possible risks and changes caused by climate change necessitates the establishment of climate policies on solid foundations. Compliance with these policies reveals the importance of current legislation. The negative consequences of the lack of progress or integration of the ports have brought the concept of "green ports" to the agenda. In this study, relevant practices and plans were evaluated within the framework of Turkish legislation in order to draw attention to the points that need to be revised in our legislation regarding green ports and climate change. As a result of the examination of the said legislation, the missing dimensions in the current legislation were discussed and the issues that needed to be detailed were evaluated. The development of policy and legislation towards green ports in the world and in Turkey was discussed, and a comparison was made on the differences and similarities. It has been concluded that insufficient communication and uncoordinated practices between the stakeholders responsible for the legislation that should be implemented in the sector regarding green port management, insufficiently clear and integrated legislation, and insufficient incentives for green port have been reached and suggestions have been developed on these issues.