The opening program of the Climate Change Trainer Training Project, carried out by the Konya Provincial Directorate of National Education with the support of Mevlana Development Agency, was held at Necmettin Erbakan University Erol Güngör Conference Hall.

AK Party Konya Deputy Halil Etyemez, Necmettin Erbakan University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Zekeriya Mızırak, MEVKA Secretary General İhsan Bostancı, Konya Provincial Director of National Education Seyit Ali Büyük, protocol members, academics, and many teachers attended the meeting.

The training, which will be organized for teachers and administrators who want to improve their knowledge and skills on climate change, will be held between February 28 and March 04, 2022. Teachers who teach Turkish, Life Science, Social Studies, and Science courses, which include global climate change achievements in their curricula, will participate in the training.

Academicians from Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Education and Konya Technical University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences will provide training to the participants under titles such as Strategies and Policies for Climate Change Education, Integration of Climate Change into the School Curriculum, Training and Teaching Materials for Teachers and Educators, Safe and Sustainable School Campuses.

Speaking at the opening meeting of the project, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General İhsan Bostancı said, “The concept of climate change, which we have been hearing frequently in recent years, has become one of today’s biggest environmental, economic, and even social threats with its characteristic of affecting all countries regardless of their level of development. Serious efforts are being made to minimize the effects of this threat. Among these efforts are the European Green Deal put forward by the EU and the Paris Climate Agreement recently adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Our country has set itself a net zero emission target for 2053 within the scope of this agreement and is progressing steadily on this path with the climate change action plans it implements. This target is an issue that needs to be emphasized and new policies developed, as it will save our country from the obligation to pay 60 Billion Euros in “Carbon Tax” by 2050. Great responsibilities fall on all of us for our country, which realizes approximately half of its exports to EU countries, not to fall behind in global competition and to bring this huge resource into the country's economy. When the climate change process is viewed from a broader perspective, it is clear that the issue is not just a global warming event, but a fundamental development problem. Because the global transition to a low-carbon economy within the scope of combating climate change envisages a radical transformation that will change people's lifestyles, production, and manufacturing methods. On the other hand, even if global efforts to reduce emissions are effective, climate change seems inevitable. This fact obliges us to adapt not only to the transformations required by the fight against climate change but also to climate change itself. This adaptation process will directly affect the growth strategies, energy policies, health and agriculture-related programs, use of water resources, food security, transition to a low-carbon economy, and development goals of developed and developing countries, and will play a clear determining role in their development. The fact that the topics discussed at the Climate Summit, where the measures to be taken by our country regarding climate change were discussed in detail and which we were greatly honored to host in our city, cover a wide range from agriculture, informatics, transportation, industry, finance, to migration and social problems, reveals this determinism. At this point, we, as Mevlana Development Agency, have supported many projects aimed at combating and adapting to climate change. We have designed and implemented technical and financial support programs for increasing the use of renewable energy, disseminating the circular economy, and efficient use of resources, especially energy, for sectors such as manufacturing industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, and tourism. With the 52 Million TL resource we provided on climate change through our different financial support programs, we have been instrumental in mobilizing an investment of 110 Million TL in our mission region. Resource efficiency will also be one of our priority areas in our financing cost support program that we will launch this year. In addition, within the scope of our 2022 Technical Support Program, we will be providing consultancy and support to our industrialists on a wider framework for reducing carbon emissions. The Climate Change Trainer Training Project, which brought us together today, is one of the projects we are happy to support within our Technical Support Program. With this project, which started with the guidance of our Konya Deputy Halil Etyemez and will be carried out under the coordination of our Konya Provincial Directorate of National Education, theoretical and practical training will be given to teachers and administrators working in schools in our city who want to improve their knowledge and skills on climate change. In today's world, where great responsibilities fall on all of us from 7 to 77 to leave a more livable and sustainable world to future generations, our teachers play a key role in raising awareness about climate change and instilling it in our children. We have full faith that our valuable teachers, who prepare our children, the guarantee of our future, for tomorrow, will fulfill this duty they have undertaken in this matter, as in every matter, with due diligence. As an institution, I would like to express that our support for them in this regard will always continue, and I thank our AK Party Konya Deputy Halil Etyemez for his great contribution to the emergence of the project, our Provincial Director of National Education Seyit Ali Büyük and his entire team and our national education community for their efforts in preparing the project, and I wish the training to be held to be beneficial for our city, region, and country,” he said.

Afterwards, Konya Provincial Director of National Education Seyit Ali Büyük, in his speech, stated that Konya hosted an important program last week, the ‘Climate Summit’, and emphasized the importance of raising awareness about climate change, which concerns the whole world. He stated that this training, which started today and will last for 5 days and will be given to a total of 100 teachers from 4 fields, will grow like water rings and expand, reaching first all our teachers and then our students. He thanked Konya Deputy Halil Etyemez, who was closely involved in the project, Necmettin Erbakan University Administrators and academics, MEVKA Secretary General İhsan Bostancı, and everyone who contributed to the project, and wished the training to be productive.

Necmettin Erbakan University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Zekeriya Mızırak also stated that we feel the consequences of climate change in many areas and emphasized the necessity of producing studies in this field. Stating that Necmettin Erbakan University will continue to support all studies to be carried out at this point, he wished the “Climate Change Trainer Training Project” to be beneficial.

Finally, AK Party Konya Deputy Halil Etyemez, who came to the podium, stated in his speech that within the scope of the project, 100 teachers working in Konya and teaching Turkish, Life Science, Social Studies, and Science courses will be given training on combating climate change. Etyemez continued his speech as follows: “With this training, our valuable teachers will provide awareness-raising training in all our schools. This project will contribute to the solution of today's major problems such as environmental pollution, soil pollution, climate change, desertification, drought, and water scarcity. Today, one out of every 9 people in the world is struggling with hunger. This means that 821 million people go to bed hungry every night. Worldwide, 33 out of every 100 foods go to waste. One-third of the wasted food is enough to feed all the hungry people in the world. Climate change will force more than 216 million people into internal migration in our world by 2050. The struggle for oil in today's world will soon give way to water and food. Today, one out of every 3 people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water. By 2050, 5.7 billion people in the world will live in places where water is scarce for at least 1 month a year,” he said.

After the protocol speeches, the training sessions began.