Topic: 2025 – Impact of Climate Change on Air Quality
Country: Turkey
Delegate Name: Rosa Lascola
Delegation: Türkiye
Committee: United Nations Environment Programme
Air quality is an issue for all nations, but especially the ones with large cities or factories. These highly populated areas create much more emissions and air pollutants than lower populated areas do. These air pollutants greatly affect climate change. Climate change is when temperatures and weather patterns change over an extended period of time (background guide). This is also the reason the air quality is getting worse. There are natural reasons as to why we have worse air quality than before, like volcanoes and solar activity (background guide). These natural reasons cannot be blamed for all climate change. Greenhouse gases from air pollutants get into the air and create the greenhouse effect, by trapping in the sun’s heat (Writershttps). There are also more wildfires as a result of climate change. The smoke from these wildfires, then create more air pollutants. This cycle and many other factors that go into climate change will not be fixed on their own, countries need to ban together to produce a solution.
Currently, Türkiye partakes in many air polluting events, such as burning, coal and producing emissions through factories. They have agreed to the Paris Agreement on climate change (Towards). This agreement is determined to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century (Unfccc). To achieve this plan, countries submit their national climate action plans, so the committee knows that everyone is on track for their goal (Unfccc). Türkiye also pleaded to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2053 (Towards). Like most other Mediterranean countries, Türkiye has experienced a lot of climate change related events in recent years. Droughts, fires, flooding, heat waves, wind storms, and land sides have all impacted Türkiye in recent years (Towards). These events have pushed Türkiye to their net zero carbon emissions as their people are greatly affected by all the climate change-related events. The world bank and other organizations have raised $3.2 billion to help Türkiye move towards this net zero goal (Towards).
A part of Türkiye’s plan that could be implemented in other countries is to simply switch to more renewable energy sources (Policies). Solar and wind energy are crucial to reducing air pollutants by reducing emissions. Moving public transportation from gas- or diesel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles would also improve our current situation. Türkiye is moving towards all these options and urges other countries to do the same. Other ways that we could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are already in the air, is to plant more greenery (Cleaning). Trees and other plants would help to clean the air. If we implement this greenery into more urban areas, it will help greatly as these areas do not currently have much greenery. Trees For the Future is an organization that would help to plant trees and other greenery across the world, but especially in urban areas (Homepage). By implementing more renewable energy sources and greenery, we are beginning to clean our air now and trying to limit emissions for the future.
Cleaning up the Air | Climate & Clean Air Coalition, www.ccacoalition.org/news/cleaning-air. Accessed 24 Nov. 2025.
“Homepage.” Trees for the Future, 18 Nov. 2025, trees.org/.
“Policies & Action.” Policies & Action | Climate Action Tracker, climateactiontracker.org/countries/turkey/policies-action/#:~:text=Power%20sector&text=Reliance%20on%20fossil%20fuel%20imports%20has%20driven%20efforts%20to%20diversify,fossil%20fuel%20phase%20out%20plan. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
“Towards a Greener and More Resilient Türkiye.” World Bank, World Bank Group, 1 Apr. 2024, www.worldbank.org/en/country/turkey/brief/towards-a-greener-and-more-resilient-turkiye#:~:text=T%C3%BCrkiye%20has%20ratified%20the%20Paris%20Agreement%20on,is%20a%20good%20business%20strategy%20for%20T%C3%BCrkiye.
Unfccc.Int, unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement’s%20goals%20include:%20*%20Limiting,emissions%20and%20build%20resilience%20to%20climate%20change. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
Writershttps://www.iqair.com/newsroom, IQAir Staff. “Does Air Pollution Cause Climate Change?” IQAir, www.iqair.com/newsroom/does-air-pollution-cause-climate-change. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
