Sustainable Energy, Smart Power and Turkish Energy Leadership

Summary

ABSTRACT

The track record of Turkish energy leadership is meagre. Despite the country's ambition, it has not managed to assert any meaningful leadership in regional gas governance. Having a closer look at the preconditions for leadership, this chapter suggests another leadership opportunity for Turkey: sustainable energy leadership. However, even though the country commands the necessary resources and potentials to become a sustainable energy leader, political will is lacking and its energy policy points towards the opposite direction: towards an expansion of coal. With sustainability and climate policy becoming ever more important in the international arena, this unsustainable policy choice in the energy sector might well compromise Turkey's international reputation way beyond the energy sector.

INTRODUCTION

The global fight against climate change as well as efforts to guarantee energy security call for the sustainable transformation of the world's energy systems. Turkey has ample potential to become a leader in the pursuit of this goal. It comprises significant energy saving and formidable renewable energy potential. Moreover, in Turkey's quickly growing economy, energy investment decisions are taken today that will determine the future course of Turkey's energy systems. This situation presents a unique opportunity to develop a sustainable and futureproof energy profile.

From a foreign policy perspective, this situation provides ample power resources for Turkey to make itself a sustainable energy leader in the global context. Leadership indeed plays an important role in Turkish thinking about foreign policy. The strategic vision of Turkey's energy policy, as declared in the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Strategic Plan for 2010 – 2014, is to make Turkey ‘the leader in its region in energy’ affairs. In this chapter, I take this vision as a starting point and ask what contribution a coherent and ambitious sustainable energy policy could make to acquire such leadership.

To give a convincing answer to this question, it is first necessary to define leadership, which I do in section 1. Section 2 briefly discusses Turkey's past and present foreign energy policy. I find that Turkey has been an active energy political player in its region. However, it has not managed to assume leadership until now, nor has it focused on sustainable energy in its foreign energy policy.