The 26th seminar of the "Istanbul Urban Studies" seminar series organized by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of Istanbul Medeniyet University moderated by Res.Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK was held online on Wednesday, 24 November 2021. Prof. Dr. Nurhan YENTURK from Istanbul Bilgi University and Işık BAŞTUĞ from Kadıköy Municipality Climate Ambassadors Coordinator presented their study named “İklim Krizi ile Mücadelede Belediye Bütçeleri ve İstanbul Örneği”. Researchers shared the results of research report published in November 2021 named ‘Türkiye’de Çevre Koruma ve İklim Değişikliği ile Mücadeleye Ayrılan Kamu Kaynaklarının İzlenmesi’ (Monitoring of Public Fundings Allocated to Fight Against Environmental Protection and Climate Change in Turkey) via their presentation.
Işık BAŞTUĞ started her presentation by reminding that most countries including Turkey will be facing with an extensive ecocide and climate related disasters in near future. She further added that lack of climate change related policies of central and local bodies is the main factor creating this situation. However, Baştuğ mentioned that legal agreements and financial aids for implementing adaptation and mitigation policies to fight against global climate crisis are encouraging steps for future. The researcher remarked that Turkey is a member of Paris Treaty and some other important formations. However, she added that it should be remembered not only the goals and promises but also the budgets allocated for policies are almost equally crucial.
Baştuğ said that she analyzed the public expenditures run by municipalities and their co-partners to fight against environmental protection and climate change under 4 categories; renewable energy usage and energy efficiency-based mitigation management; adaptation expenses, waste management and other expenses like nature protection, environmental awareness training and environmental management.
Prof. Dr. Nurhan YENTURK evaluating the results of the study pointed that allocated budgets of 14 metropolitan municipalities for environmental protection and climate change have been decreasing since 2018´s and melting due to inflation rate. She said that Istanbul has the highest budget allocated for environmental protection and climate change which is almost total sum of other municipalities’ budgets in Istanbul and 4 times bigger than Ankara´s. She underlined that although Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality´s budget shares taken from its subsidiaries vary, IMM´s income consists of mostly land sales since 2018. YENTURK explaining the budget according to research items said that highest rate is dedicated for waste management while second highest rate is followed by adaptation and mitigation projects.
Baştuğ evaluating Kadıköy Municipality´s related budget said that ¾ of budget is allocated for cycle route, solar energy usage and waste- free street projects which serve as mitigation projects. The researcher mentioned that following expenses are air quality measurement, climate based early warning systems and adaptation projects including green areas and other expenses. She explained the reasons why waste management is the lowest budget item are long-established applications like mobile waste and waste sorting which have been run for ten years.
In the following q/a part, couple of controversial issues were discussed. Firstly, efficiency of strategies run by local government to fight with climate crisis and their integration with urban planning was discussed. Later on, municipal expenses and their contribution for climate action goals was probed along with water use efficiency centered environmental protection and alternatives to grass areas. The last discussion was also about possible changes on climate action expenditures which might be faced due to inflation and exchange difference.
