Emission reductions and future of energy policies in Turkey. are renewables an alternative?

---

Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, İktisat Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2019

Öğrenci: ÖZGE ÖNENLİ

Danışman: HAKAN ERCAN

Özet:

Climate change is considered one of the greatest threats that the world has ever faced. Human activities are the main cause of the excessive greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. GHGs created by the anthropogenic effects are far greater than the naturally present portions in the atmosphere and in charge of the alteration in the composition of the atmosphere. Which human activity is responsible for global warming? The main contributor of the GHGs is the energy sector on which human activities are deeply relying. There is no other way to think that human activities are refined from the need of energy. Therefore, there is a strong need of improvement of the energy policies in order to fight with the global climate change. A concrete step is taken as a conclusion of COP21 (21st annual Conference of Parties, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference). Over 20 years of United Nations (UN) negotiations it was for the first time to agree upon a universal and a legally binding agreement keeping the average global temperature rise below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial level. In this study, cross-country panel data analysis is conducted in order to forecast electricity demand of Turkey for the period 2018-2040. By utilizing this forecast vi results, different scenarios for energy policy design for Turkey is investigated in order to indicate how we can shape our future energy policies regarding the mandatory reduction of CO2 emissions. In addition to the first one, the study explores whether renewables can be a solution in the medium term or whether nuclear power is a must for our future energy policies in order to satisfy the growing electricity demand. The main result of the thesis highlights that renewable energy sources can be considered as a solution to cope with the two constraints (to supply the increasing electricity demand and to keep emission on target) scrutinized in this thesis.