Turkey gets a Fossil Award for asking for more climate money but no plans to cut coal use

November 7, 2016 Our first Fossil of the Day at COP 22 in Marrakech goes to….Turkey! Turkey was a nuisance at the international climate negotiations today by going all, “me, me, me!” Turkish negotiators requested an agenda item on financial support (again), derailing substantive discussions for much of the day, out of pure self-interest (again). Turkey is desperately seeking more funding for climate action under the Paris Agreement which is surprising because Turkey hasn’t even ratified this treaty! At the same time Turkey is making big plans to open coal plants in regions with water shortages and serious air pollution. So before making claims to financial support under the Paris Agreement, it would be great if Turkey could show the rest of the world where this money would actually go, by cutting support for dirty coal and getting on track to go 100% renewable. By winning this award, we hope Turkey will revise its approach to climate action and do more to realise its massive renewable energy potential- and yes, get on board with the 100 other countries who have ratified the Paris Agreement.

About CAN: The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 950 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 115 working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org 
 
About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.