Mevlana Development Agency, continuing its work in the TR-52 Konya-Karaman Region under the coordination of the Ministry of Industry and Technology General Directorate of Development Agencies, organized a Green Transformation Training Program for project owner firms entitled to receive support within the scope of the 2024 Transformation in Manufacturing Industry Technical Support Program.

The training program, conducted by Dr. Tuba Budak Duhbacı, Expert at TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center, aims to determine the green transformation roadmaps of firms and increase the capacity of human resources working in this field.

Evaluating the training program carried out by the Agency, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General Dr. İhsan Bostancı said, “As we all closely follow, the concept of climate change, which we have started to hear frequently, especially recently, has emerged as a result of many reasons such as the increasing world population despite the depletion of natural resources, rapidly developing industry, wrong agricultural practices, destruction of nature and the environment, and many more we can count, and 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. 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. In short, the Carbon Border Adjustment, which can also be defined as the taxation of low-cost but high-emission products imported into the EU market according to their carbon intensity to protect EU producers whose production costs have increased due to environmental regulations from unfair competition, closely concerns many sectors. Indeed, it is on the agenda that the regulation, which started to be implemented in 2023 and is planned to be fully implemented in 2026, will initially focus on products with the highest carbon leakage risk; cement, iron-steel, aluminum, fertilizer, and energy sectors, and then be applied to all sectors. Serious efforts are being made to minimize the effects of this situation. At the forefront of these efforts are the European Green Deal put forward by the EU and the Paris Climate Agreement adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. This target emerges as 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. Our country has set itself a net zero emission target for 2053 within the scope of this agreement and is implementing its prepared climate change action plans one by one in cooperation with public, private sector, and non-governmental organizations. At this point, 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. As an Agency, in this direction; we have mobilized an investment of 273 Million TL by providing approximately 105 Million TL support in current figures to 33 projects with our 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. In addition, I would especially like to state that 11 of the 36 successful projects within the Transformation in Manufacturing Industry Technical Support Program, which we announced as an Agency to ensure the corporate, digital, and green transformations of our firms operating in the manufacturing industry in our region, are aimed at completing the green transformation processes of our firms, and in this context, activities will be carried out for preparing energy audits of our firms and roadmaps for their green transformation processes. Stating that these projects to be implemented with the support of our Agency will be carried out in cooperation with our Konya Chamber of Industry and TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center within the scope of the signed protocols, I would also like to thank our Konya Chamber of Industry and TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center for their support. Finally, under the leadership of our Agency, the Konya Provincial Green Deal Committee was established for themes related to Climate Change, European Green Deal, and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, focusing on reducing our province's greenhouse gas emissions and Turkey's Net Zero target, to develop relevant ecosystems, improve them, increase the qualified human resources capacity of institutions, and enhance inter-institutional collaborations, and it continues its work by holding agenda-setting meetings at regular intervals. Within this training program carried out by our Agency, Expert Researcher Tuba Budak Duhbacı from TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center Environment and Clean Production Institute provided trainings to our manufacturing firms on topics such as European Green Deal Adaptation Process, Carbon Footprint Concept and Calculation Methodology, carbon footprint calculation demonstration study in the manufacturing sector, Resource Efficiency Concept, Clean Production Methodology, Case Study, Clean Production Studies in Manufacturing Industry and Achievements, Clean Production Studies in Manufacturing Industry Turkey and World Applications, Green Financing Opportunities. Following the trainings, energy audits of our firms receiving support will be conducted together with our TÜBİTAK Experts and Chamber of Industry, and the green transformation roadmaps of our firms will be determined. Stating that our efforts to complete the green transformation processes of our firms in our region will continue as an Agency, I thank our Konya Chamber of Industry and TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center very much for their valuable support and wish our training program to be beneficial.”