Yenilenebilir enerji sektörü ve gönüllü karbon projelerinden Türkiye'nin yıllık denkleştirme hacminin incelenmesi

Turkey has a unique circumstance listed as an Annex I country of the United Nations Framework Convention and not listed as an Annex B country of the Kyoto Protocol. Due to this unique position, Turkey cannot benefit from flexible mechanisms and participated in the voluntary carbon market. Turkey has started to find alternative ways to reduce its GHG emissions cost-effectively. In this study, Turkey's annual offset volume is studied with five main cases based on Turkey's renewable energy sector, all Turkish voluntary carbon projects, Turkish voluntary carbon projects eligible to issue carbon credits, and issued and transacted Turkish carbon credits with a bottom-up approach. First, it is found that the annual offset volume from the renewable energy sector for 2018 was more than 52 million tCO2. Secondly, it is found that there are 436 Turkish voluntary carbon projects with a total annual offset volume equal to 33 million tCO2. Furthermore, it is realized that only 187 of them are eligible to issue carbon credits equal to an annual offset volume of more than 14 million tCO2. Lastly, it is calculated that the annual average issuance and transaction volume are respectively 3.6 and 2 million tCO2 for the period between 2010-2019. The results show that more than half of the annual offset volume is unavailable due to the ineligible projects. The actual market volume is even less considering the issuance and transactions. It indicates a need to increase the demand for the credits by introducing a mandatory offsetting requirement.