Earlier this year, Türkiye developed and published the Climate Change Mitigation Strategy (CCMSAP) for 2024-2030.
The government plans to establish an emissions trading system (ETS), which will be harmonised with the EU mechanism for adjusting border prices taking into account CO2 emissions (CBAM) and the carbon dioxide emission allowance market.
It will most likely be regulated over 10 million tons of CO2, which is equal to Luxembourg’s annual emissions. The act was published in the Journal of Laws on July 9, but there is still no regulation containing guidelines on the types of ships that will be covered by the new regulations, as well as tonnage, emission fees, as well as the procedures for monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions from ships.
According to the Turkish Minister of Transport, in the period from January to May 2024, the volume of container transshipment in Turkey increased to 1.2 million TEU, which is an increase of 54% year-on-year.
Some 28% of the total transhipment volume – 340 thousand TEU – came from the European Union. The increase has raised some concerns that some carriers may be transshipping goods through Türkiye to avoid paying EU carbon taxes.
As transhipment increases at Turkish ports, calls to improve the EU system are growing. The updated ETS system, adopted by the European Commission last year, allows select third-country transhipment ports to be included in the European carbon tax mechanism. However, some ports, including ports in Türkiye, are not on the list.