Türkiye’s first lady on Friday called for fair climate action with the participation of different geographies, arguing that “nations not responsible for the crisis are the ones facing it.”
"We see that countries that have never lost their relationship with the land are also faced with crises for which they are not responsible,” Emine Erdoğan said at the Climate Talks for a Green Future program in Dubai.
"It is inevitable to implement a fair climate action plan to convince Africa, Asia and Latin America to join the universal struggle,” she said, adding: “Humanity must stop seeing nature as an enemy and re-establish a bond with it.”
Erdoğan emphasized that she found it meaningful to seek solutions to environmental problems by bringing together different geographies.
Similarly, referring to the children who have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli attacks, Erdoğan said: "I would like to express that we have no right to leave a world tainted with genocide to future generations.
"While a child is murdered every 10 minutes in Gaza, can our call for intergenerational justice find a response in conscience?"
A world where international law and human values apply to all humanity, regardless of religion, language, race or ethnicity, will be truly worth saving, she stressed.
Erdoğan further reiterated the need to spread volunteerism in creating the awareness that “humanity is one family and the world is our shared home.”
Türkiye is leading a “Climate Ambassadors Project” at school campuses to raise environmentally conscious children and setting up climate change workshops to meet sustainable development targets, the first lady recalled.
“The more equipped our children grow, the stronger they will be in overcoming the problems of our world,” Erdoğan noted.
About the Türkiye's zero-waste initiative, she said the project is a movement rising on the shoulders of volunteers.
In 2017, under the auspices of the first lady, Türkiye launched a zero-waste project to highlight the importance of eliminating waste in fighting the climate crisis.
The project has drawn international praise, with U.N. chief Antonio Guterres expressing gratitude to Erdogan during a conference in New York last September.
Last December, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on the zero-waste initiative presented by Türkiye, declaring March 30 as the International Day of Zero Waste.
"As our project was adopted throughout the country, it was possible to increase the recycling rate from 13% to 30% and bring $3.5 billion into the economy," said Erdoğan, adding that Türkiye has prevented 4.9 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
She pointed out the increasingly visible effects of climate change, like an island of waste the size of a continent in the Pacific Ocean or plastic packages found in the depths of the Mariana Trench, all of which “demonstrate how critical the situation is.”
“We are aware we cannot leave a world where future generations will have to be tested with climate migration,” Erdoğan said. “For the sake of future generations, it is essential for people, especially developed countries, to give up individualism and to protect the world together.”
"I wholeheartedly believe that as the number of active climate volunteers increases around the world, we will make our voices heard more and our concrete gains will increase," she said.
The First Lady later visited the Türkiye Pavilion at the expo to tour an exhibition of paintings on handmade papers from raw materials and bird sculptures of scrapped metals inspired by the photographs of endangered wild species.
She also watched a marbling artist perform her art on waste papers.
