Carbon dioxide removal

Forests in Türkiye produce approximately 44 million tons of oxygen annually, meeting each person's average yearly need of 740 kilograms, Amasya regional forest director has said, urging everyone to protect the country's wildwoods.

"Such figures indicate that mankind has benefited from forests in around 6,000 distinct ways," Ferdi Özer pointed out.

Energean subsidiary Enearth has submitted an application for new European financing of the underground carbon dioxide storage at Prinos, northern Greece, a project it is developing with a budget of over 1.1 billion euros.

The European Commission on Monday approved a 150-million-euro initiative funded through the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for the construction of a carbon storage facility in Prinos in Kavala, northern Greece. 

Around 255,000 hectares of land were damaged in fires in Türkiye between 2012 and 2023, while 1.7 million hectares were added to the forest asset in the same period.

In the wake of the wildfires that have ripped through Attica in recent years, experts insist that successful reforestation requires meticulous studies tailored to the specific areas that have been burnt. 

The Prinos oil field in northern Greece can capture 3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, three times the amount envisaged in an initial study.

Energean will proceeding with studies on how to expand the field's capture potential. This was decided at a meeting in Athens, where managers from Energean, EnEarth and Halliburton, one of the largest global advisers of energy firms.

Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to store underground "sounds too good to be true", a climate expert told AFP, yet the technology to increase its capacity tenfold is already being tested.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognises carbon capture and storage among the solutions for eliminating CO2, without giving it a central place in its models.

If Greece takes steps to stem the destruction of its meadows of Neptune grass (Posidonia oceanica) in the Southern Aegean alone, it could reach 37% of its greenhouse gas emissions absorption target by 2030, a study spearheaded by the Hellenic Center for Marine Research has found.

The Istanbul Governor's Office has initiated a reforestation campaign with the aim of restoring forested areas damaged by wildfires in the city this year.

New forests will be established in all 81 provinces in the country as part of a nationwide large-scale afforestation effort on the occasion of the National Afforestation Day on Nov. 11, Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı has announced.