Environmental spending increased in 2022: TÜİK

Environmental protection expenditures have increased by 111.4 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, totaling 140.3 billion Turkish Liras, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

Of the total investment expenditures on environmental protection, which increased by 140.9 percent compared to 2021 and totaled 32.7 billion liras, 84.7 percent was made by financial and non-financial corporations and 15.3 percent by the general government and non-profit organizations serving households.

The ratio of environmental protection expenditures in gross domestic product was 0.93 percent in 2022, while it was 0.91 percent in 2021, TÜİK said.

Türkiye has been gearing up to protect current resources and avert the grave effect of global warming over the last few years. A large number of experts, NGOs and officials have continuously issued warnings on potential threats of the climate crisis.

Professor Lokman Hakan Tecer from Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University stated that water temperatures have increased in the seas surrounding Türkiye, stressing: "Temperatures of the Marmara Sea has increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius since 1970. While the long-term average temperatures were 15.3 degrees Celsius in 1970, this has increased to 17.8 degrees Celsius as of last year, which is a serious increase."

"Rising temperatures have various environmental impacts on aquatic environments. For instance, increasing temperatures are one of the three reasons that have led to the formation of mucilage in the Marmara Sea sea, and this trend is still continuing," he said.

"The other two reasons are the lack of currents in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, which implies the lack of oxygen as the seas become stagnant, and factories...