What will Turkey's new national energy policy bring?

Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak presented a fairly ambitious national energy policy in a meeting that drew the country's leading businesspeople from the energy, infrastructure and banking sectors. 

The plan strongly aims to enhance Turkey's energy supply security and improve its use of local energy resources and its modes of energy production with the inclusion of many more indigenous sources, from human resources to renewable and nuclear equipment. 

The policy, which includes a number of "must-do" steps for Turkey, could really facilitate a decrease in the country's dependence on foreign resources and, thus, its current account deficit, if it is applied in a transparent and efficient way. 

Before proceeding to these key steps, let me note that Turkey posted a current account gap of over $32 billion last year, and almost $24 billion of this came from the country's energy bill, even in a year when energy prices were still relatively low. 

One of the key points to Albayrak's presentation regarded raising Turkey's investments in coal reserves. Noting that Turkey's use of local coal reserves had almost doubled to 15 billion tons in recent years, the minister added, "Turkey's coal is now understood to be more efficient than it had earlier been thought."

The point is here whether Turkey will place special emphasis on ecological concerns regarding the use of coal in electricity production. Albayrak said that resources that are "even better than the latest existing green technologies will be used in this area." 

This is a crucial pledge and should be kept for the sake of sustainable economic growth.

Additionally, high work safety standards must also be guaranteed in the new era, especially after a number...