Report on Türkiye’s Climate Change Adaptation Initiative and Alignment with Sustainable Development Goals

Project Launch and Strategic Partnerships (SDG 17)

• A new initiative, the “Strengthening Climate Change Adaptation Action in Türkiye” project, has been launched to advance national efforts against climate change impacts.
• This project represents a significant multi-stakeholder partnership, aligning with SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), as it is jointly supported by Türkiye’s Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• The initiative marks the commencement of the project’s education and outreach component, centered on the updated Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (2024-2030).

Core Objective: Fostering Climate Action (SDG 13)

• The primary goal of the strategy is to guide Türkiye’s response to the escalating effects of climate change, a direct contribution to SDG 13 (Climate Action).
• The project addresses critical climate-related challenges including heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires, and biodiversity loss.
• The urgency of this action is underscored by recent data indicating a 1.55 degrees Celsius global temperature increase above pre-industrial levels, reinforcing the need to meet the targets of SDG 13.

Focus on Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11)

• The updated strategy places a strong emphasis on local engagement, particularly at the city and sectoral levels.
• This approach is designed to enhance community resilience, directly supporting the objectives of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by making urban and rural settlements more inclusive, safe, and resilient.
• The project aims to build societal resilience by strengthening local capacity to adapt to climate change.

Project Components and Broader SDG Contributions

1. Capacity-Building and Awareness: The project will build societal resilience through targeted awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts for municipalities and various sectors. This supports foundational goals for education and institutional strength.
2. Adaptation Planning: It will support the development of robust climate adaptation plans, strengthening decision-making tools for sustainable and climate-resilient development. This contributes to SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) by addressing flood and drought risks, and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by tackling biodiversity loss.
3. Grant Program Implementation: A grant program will be implemented to accelerate local adaptation actions, empowering communities to implement solutions that enhance their resilience.

Implementation via Stakeholder Training

• The project’s implementation has commenced with a comprehensive training program.
• The program consists of five distinct two-day sessions designed to engage approximately 250 stakeholders from across Türkiye.
• This training is a critical step toward the practical application of the national adaptation strategy, ensuring that climate action is integrated at all levels of governance and society.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The article on Türkiye’s climate change adaptation efforts directly addresses and connects to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The primary focus is on climate action, but the methods and goals described also involve sustainable communities and partnerships.

• SDG 13: Climate Action

  This is the most prominent SDG in the article. The entire text revolves around Türkiye’s national efforts to “tackle the impacts of climate change” through its “Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan.” The project aims to build resilience against climate effects like heatwaves, droughts, and floods, which is the core mission of SDG 13.

• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

  The article emphasizes the importance of local-level action. It states that the new strategy “deepens local engagement, especially at the city and sectoral levels” and that “local adaptation plays a critical role in enhancing community resilience.” This directly aligns with SDG 11’s goal of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

  The initiative described is a collaborative effort. The article explicitly mentions that the project is “jointly funded” and “supported by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)” in partnership with Türkiye’s “Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.” This multi-stakeholder partnership is a key aspect of SDG 17, which aims to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Several specific targets can be identified by analyzing the actions and strategies mentioned in the article.

• Targets under SDG 13 (Climate Action):

  • Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. The article directly supports this target by describing the project’s aim to guide Türkiye’s response to “heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires and biodiversity loss” and to “build societal resilience.”
  • Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning. The article’s central focus is the “updated Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (2024-2030),” which is a clear example of integrating climate measures into national planning.
  • Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. The launch of a “training program” for 250 stakeholders is a direct implementation of this target, aiming to build capacity through “education and outreach.”

• Targets under SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities):

  • Target 11.b: By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters. The project’s support for the “development of climate adaptation plans” at the “municipal levels” and its focus on enhancing “community resilience” directly contribute to this target.

• Targets under SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals):

  • Target 17.9: Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals. The training program, supported by the EU and UNDP, is a perfect example of targeted capacity-building to help Türkiye implement its national climate adaptation plan.
  • Target 17.16: Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships. The project itself, being a collaboration between a national government (Türkiye), an international organization (UNDP), and a regional body (EU), exemplifies this type of multi-stakeholder partnership.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, the article mentions several concrete and measurable elements that can serve as indicators for progress.

• Indicators for SDG 13 Targets:

  • For Target 13.2: The existence and launch of the “updated Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (2024-2030)” serves as a direct indicator (related to official indicator 13.2.1: Number of countries that have communicated the establishment or operationalization of an integrated policy/strategy/plan).
  • For Target 13.3: The “training program” itself is a measurable activity. Specific indicators mentioned are the “five different sessions” and the target of training “approximately 250 stakeholders.” The number of people trained is a clear indicator of capacity-building efforts.

• Indicators for SDG 11 Targets:

  • For Target 11.b: The project’s support for the “development of climate adaptation plans” at the municipal level implies that the number of municipalities with such plans will be a key indicator of success.

• Indicators for SDG 17 Targets:

  • For Target 17.9: The implementation of the training program and the “grant program to accelerate local actions” are tangible indicators of international support for capacity-building. The amount of funding provided through the grant program could be another specific metric.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: dailysabah.com