First lady Emine Erdoğan chaired the first official meeting of the United Nations Zero Waste Advisory Board in Istanbul on Wednesday. U.N. officials, first ladies and other dignitaries attended the meeting, highlighting the importance of recycling in the face of climate change.

The board, set up with the efforts of Erdoğan, who championed the zero waste initiative in Türkiye first, held its first meeting online last July. In Istanbul’s Vahdettin Mansion, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of U.N. Habitat, moderated the second meeting.

In her opening speech, Erdoğan praised the success stories of participants in recycling and their endeavors for zero waste.

The first lady stated that the production and consumption habits of modern humans had an important connection to climate change, according to studies. "Today, limited resources are running out fast, yet more than 2 billion tons of household waste is generated every year. This is expected to double soon," she lamented.

She said the zero waste program was the outcome of action against the impact of climate change and helped Türkiye to save $3.5 billion (TL 99.15 billion) in six years and prevented 4.9 million tons of greenhouse emissions.

Erdoğan said the ultimate ideal of the global zero waste movement was adopting zero waste as a lifestyle by each individual. "We have to tell the people who feel desperate in the face of the climate crisis that they can improve the world and leave a cleaner world to future generations.

The first lady said not every country had the same resources to fight the climate crisis and underlined that the international community should mobilize all means to help the least developed countries join this fight. "In zero waste program, transfer of experience, technology and finances are important. We have to create opportunities for financial support to those countries, along with our experience. So, I propose the establishment of a zero waste fund with the cooperation of this advisory board," she said.

Participants agreed upon two future meetings next year in Türkiye and New York.

Among the participants who spoke at the meeting were Under-Secretary-General for Policy at the U.N. Guy Bernard Ryder; Suriname first lady Mellisa Santokhi-Seenacherry; Sierra Leone first lady Fatima Maada Bio; Jose Manuel Moller, CEO of Algramo, a company specialized in recycling; Muhammad Yunus, founding partner of Yunus Environment Hub; International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) President Carlos Silva Filho; Laura Reyes, CEO of circular economy organization CEMPRE; Waste Transformers CEO Lara van Druten; professor Saleem Ali from Delaware University; former Environment Minister of Morocco Hakima El Haite and Gino Van Begin, secretary-general of local governments for sustainability (ICLEI).