Turkey aims to increase the share of green economy to diminish the impact of climate change, Vice President Fuat Oktay said Monday.

"We are taking environmentally friendly steps to minimize the devastating effects of climate change," Oktay told a meeting of the Coordination Council for the Improvement of Investment Environment in Turkey (YOIKK), which was held in the capital Ankara.

"We are moving toward a green economy, and entering the era of green development. Our steps aim to increase long-term foreign investment," he said.

Oktay emphasized that global supply chains broke down during the coronavirus pandemic, but Turkey minimized its effects, thanks to its advantageous position in production and logistics.

"Despite the negative climate in the global economy, we ended 2020 in growth. Our 1.8% economic growth rate ranked second among G-20 countries last year. We continued this acceleration in the first quarter with a 7.2% growth, and in the second quarter with 21.7%," he said.

Oktay's remarks come ahead of COP26, the U.N. conference on climate change scheduled on Oct. 31-Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Turkey ranked fifth in Europe last year in terms of its renewable power capacity growth, and it is expected to add 22.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2025 to reach 66.8 GW, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Renewables 2020 report.

The country also ranked among the top five countries in Europe in terms of large-scale production plants for wind turbine equipment.