The current status of coal as an energy and greenhouse gas source in Turkey as well as the association between the trend of increasing the share of coal in future electricity generation and economy policies are addressed in this report. The first part of the report indicates that coal is primarily responsible for the release of greenhouse gases that cause climate change and addresses the current status of energy infrastructure, share of coal, and plans towards increasing the share of coal in the future in Turkey. The second part discusses the involvement and weight of coal in the Turkish economy and the structural transformation and current tendencies of an economy fixated on coal in its energy policies. The third part of the report addresses coal investments and government support and incentives provided to coal in Turkey and reveals the problems resulting from such situations in terms of Turkey’s climate policies. In part four, Turkish policies regarding increasing the share of coal are assessed in light of international developments. Future obstacles resulting from the transition of the European Union to a low carbon economic model and the decarbonization trends in other countries are among the main topics discussed in this section. Part five discusses the environment and the health impacts of coal, as well as the public health problems arising from coal-fired power plants. The sixth and final part of the report examines whether the “clean coal” argument suggested frequently in the field of climate policy is technically possible or not. The technical, economic, and legal challenges with regard to the application of carbon capture and the storage technologies stipulated to mitigate emissions from coal are addressed here.

This study presents the results on the simulations of the scenarios based on the CO 2 emission reduction of the electricity sector in Turkey, utilising the long-range energy alternatives planning (LEAP) system model, and the mitigation costs of the scenarios. Three scenarios including baseline scenario, (scenario 1) and the two mitigation scenarios (scenario 2 and scenario 3) are employed. The scenario 1 is based on the continuation of the recent electricity generation composition. Scenario 2 is established for the evaluation of all the renewable energy potential, except solar, of Turkey while scenario 3 included all the renewable and nuclear energy. The CO 2 emission intensity decreased by 20.5% and 35.6% for the scenarios 2 and 3 in 2030, respectively compared to the baseline scenario. The CO 2 emission mitigation costs are found 17 $/ton CO 2 and 40 $/ton CO 2 for the Scenarios 2 and 3, respectively through 2010 to 2030.