Heatwaves and droughts in Turkey are the main hazards due to its climate getting hotter. The temperature has risen in the 21st century, exceeding in 2025, and there is more extreme weather. Due to differing geography effects vary across the country. Water supply to some cities is threatened. Turkey will host the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference and Murat Kurum says that climate finance is the most important issue.
Turkey's annual greenhouse gas emissions are over 1% of the global total, and energy policy includes subsidizing both fossil gas and coal. Per person emissions since the late-2010s have varied around six and a half tonnes a year, which is about the global average. However historical emissions are less than 1% of the global total.
The Directorate of Climate Change co-ordinates adaptation to climate change, which has been planned for water resources by river basin, and for agriculture. Certificate caps in the emission trading system are unclear as of 2026. Housing is not energy efficient, the pathway to the 2053 net zero target is unclear, and there is no plan for coal phase-out.__TOC__
Greenhouse gas emissions
Coal, cars and lorries vent more than a third of Turkey's annual greenhouse gas emissions, which total about six hundred million tonnes. They are mostly carbon dioxide and part of the cause of climate change in Turkey. A quarter of the emissions are from electricity generation.
The energy sector, including transport, emitted 420 million tonnes in 2024. The nation's coal-fired power stations emit the most carbon dioxide, and road vehicles running on petrol or diesel are also significant. After coal and oil the third most polluting fuel is fossil gas; which is burnt in Turkey's gas-fired power stations, homes and workplaces. Much methane is belched by livestock; cows alone produce half of the greenhouse gas from agriculture in Turkey.
Economists say that major reasons for Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions are subsidies for coal-fired power stations, and the lack of a price on carbon pollution.
Turkey's share of current global greenhouse gas emissions is slightly over 1%. Annual per person emissions are six and a half tonnes, which is around the global average. Although greenhouse gas totals are reported some details, such as the split between cars and lorries, are not published.
The government supports reforestation, electric vehicle manufacturing and low-carbon electricity generation; and is aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2053. But its long-term plan omits coal phase-out, and there is no clear pathway to net zero. Turkey's nationally determined contribution to the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change is 643 million tonnes in 2035, which has been criticised as an increase on current emissions. In 2024 environment minister Murat Kurum said that by Turkey's net zero year of 2053 half of primary energy would be from renewables and 30% from nuclear, but did not explain how the remaining 20% could be decarbonised. Although carbon emission trading is due to start its pilot phase, unless Turkey's climate and energy policies are changed the 2053 net zero target may be missed.
Uncertainty and estimates ahead of official inventory The government estimated 2024 emissions at 517.4 Mt with and 584.5 Mt without LULUCF, and uncertainty at 7.9%, or 5.1% without LULUCF.
Climate Trace estimate 646 million tonnes (Mt) of GHG was emitted in 2025 excluding land use, land-use change, and forestry, and 43 Mt from LULUCF. Their estimate of 72 Mt of GHG from waste in 2023 and 2024 and 2025 is much higher than the official figure of 15 Mt in 2023 and 2024, but the reason is unclear.
Official figures do not detail individual sources, but the largest in 2025 according to Climate Trace were ZETES power stations, Istanbul Airport, Cenal power station, İÇDAŞ Biga power station and Isdemir Payas steel plant.
The Transnational Institute estimated 2023 military emissions at 4.7 million tonnes, but this estimate may not have used official NATO methodology.
Monitoring, reporting and verification
Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) includes tracking national GHG emissions and action to limit them, and sharing information and lessons learned. The Directorate of Climate Change and Turkish government's Statistical Institute (Turkstat) follow the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reporting guidelines, so use production-based GHG accounting to compile the country's greenhouse gas inventory. Using consumption-based accounting would give a similar total. Turkstat sends the data to the UNFCCC annually during the second year following the reported year, for example 2023 emissions were reported in 2025 in the annual National Inventory Document (NID) and Common Reporting Tables (CRT). In years when a Biennial transparency report (BTR) is submitted to the UNFCCC the data may be included with the report, as was done in 2024 with Turkey's first BTR. Emissions from fuels sold in the country for international aviation and shipping are accounted separately in reports to the UNFCCC, and are not included in a country's total. In 2024 jet kerosene, supplied at Turkish airports and burnt by international flights, emitted 15 Mt e (carbon dioxide equivalent); (there are also indirect effects from contrails and ozone) and diesel oil and residual fuel oil from Turkish ports powering international shipping 2 Mt e.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines three methodological tiers to measure emissions. Tier 1 uses global defaults and simplified assumptions, so is the easiest but least accurate. Tier 2 uses country specific values and more detailed data. Tier 3 uses the most detailed data and modelling, so is the most difficult to compile but the most accurate. To make best use of human resources each nation may decide to only use higher tiers to estimate its particular "key categories". Turkstat selects these categories depending on either the absolute level of emissions from that category, or whether it is trending, or uncertain. For example, CO2 from lime production was a key category for 2024 solely because of its quickly rising emissions: most of the key categories selected in 2024 are both trending up and the largest emitting sectors, cement production for example. Turkey uses Tier 2 and Tier 3 methodology for some key categories, for example a power plant might analyse the lignite it burns, which differs from mine to mine. Turkey has a high rate of car ownership even in urban areas,and although road transport is a key category, it is not split between cars and lorries as is done in some countries. In 2021 the UNFCCC asked Turkey why it reported negligible indirect GHGs (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds and sulfur oxides) in 2018. Legislation for the Turkish Emissions Trading System to monitor some private sector emissions was passed in 2026, but does not include methane from biomass such as waste.
Greenhouse gas sources
Turkey emitted 585 Mt of GHG in 2024. Istanbul Policy Center has suggested a total national carbon budget of about 13 Gt after 2023, as a part of the global carbon budget to keep below 2 degrees. Per-person emissions are around the world average, at around 7 t in 2024. Turkey's cumulative CO2 emissions are estimated at around 13 Gt, which is less than 1% of the world's cumulative total (Turkey's population is about 1% of world population). Turkey's emissions can be looked at differently to the standard IPCC classification: for example a 2021 study by Izmir University of Economics estimated that food, "from farm to fork", accounts for about a third of national emissions, which is similar to the global emissions share of food.
Fossil fuels
Burning coal in Turkey was the largest emitter in 2024, followed by oil then gas. That year, Turkey's energy sector emitted over 70% of the country's GHG, mostly through electricity generation, followed by road transport. In contrast agriculture contributed 13% of emissions and industrial processes and product use (IPPU) also 13%. Carbon capture and storage is not economically viable. The GHG emission intensity of energy consumption is higher than in the EU.
Turkey expects to greatly increase gas production. In 2021, IEA head Fatih Birol called for fossil-fuel producing countries to include limits on methane leaks in their climate pledges, but Turkey has not signed the global methane pledge.
Production of public heat and electricity emitted 150 megatonnes of e in 2024, mainly through coal burning. Investment in wind and solar is hampered by subsidies for coal.
Subsidised coal burnt by poor families contributes a bit to climate change, and more importantly its soot pollutes local air. Residential fuel, such as natural gas and coal, contributed 51 Mt e in 2024. Burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas for commercial and institutional buildings, such as for heating, emitted 13 Mt e in 2024. According to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, "The energy sector, which is an emission-intensive and resource-intensive sector, will be one of the sectors that will be most affected by the regulations brought or to be brought by [the Paris and UNFCCC] agreements. In this context, our country is determined to use its energy resources effectively, efficiently and with the least impact on the environment, within the framework of sustainable development goals.".
Coal-fired power stations
Turkey's coal-fired power stations are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey, at 123 Mt (over 20% of national emissions) in 2024. Over a kilogram of is emitted for every KWh of electricity generated in Turkey by coal-fired power stations.
Almost all coal burnt in power stations is local lignite or imported bituminous (hard) coal. Coal analysis of Turkish lignite shows that it is high in ash and moisture, low in energy value and high in emission intensity; that is Turkish lignite emits more than other countries' lignites. When carbon dioxide () from coal used by industry and for heating buildings, and methane emissions from coal mining, are added to those from coal-fired electricity generation, over 30% of Turkey's annual emissions come from coal. In 2024, burning coal emitted 159 Mt in total. Methane leaks from coal mines in 2024 were equivalent to 7 Mt . Eren Holding (via Eren Enerji's coal-fired ZETES power stations) emits over 2% of Turkey's GHG, and İÇDAŞ emits over 1% from its Bekirli coal-fired power stations. Emissions of black carbon are not published for individual power stations, as Turkey has not ratified the Gothenburg Protocol on air pollution.
Gas-fired power stations
Gas-fired power stations emitted 27 Mt e in 2024. Electricity generation from gas tends to increase when hydropower is limited by droughts. The cost of natural gas is expected to fall in the late 2020s with the expiry of expensive import agreements with Russia and Iran, and increasing production from the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea.
Transport
Transport emitted 101 Mt of e in 2024, a bit over one tonne per person, over 90% from road transport in the country (and agricultural vehicles). Over half of Turkey's transport emissions come from diesel fuel burnt in road vehicles, but the proportion from cars compared to other vehicles such as lorries is not known. The train network is underused and, unlike some other countries, Turkey has no binding transport specific targets. Fuel quality and emissions standards for new cars are less strict than those in the EU. Domestic flights emitted 4 Mt of e in 2024.
Industry