Turkey’s newly passed climate law is attracting sharp criticism from opposition lawmakers and environmental groups who argue that the legislation prioritizes market mechanisms over meaningful environmental action and excludes key stakeholders from the policymaking process, BBC’s Turkish service reported on Thursday.
The bill, submitted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and approved by parliament on Wednesday, establishes an Emissions Trading System (ETS) and outlines the legal and institutional framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. However, critics contend that the law falls short of delivering real climate solutions and instead serves the interests of major corporations.
“This so-called ‘climate law’ is being introduced solely for the benefit of five pro-government companies,” said Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Ali Mahir Başarır. “There is no solution in this law for the regions where low-income citizens, who are most affected by climate change, live.”
Başarır emphasized that while Turkey needs a comprehensive climate law, the one adopted was prepared without input from universities, environmental organizations or local governments. “As the Republican People’s Party, we reject this law,” he said.
The Felicity Party’s deputy from Hatay, Necmettin Çalışkan, called the legislation a “regulation named ‘climate’ but about trade.” He said the bill offers no tangible solutions to major environmental issues such as forest fires, agricultural frost or drought and instead “serves the interests of capital rather than the nature and people of our country.”
İbrahim Akın, a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) from İzmir, pointed to the lack of transparency in the legislative process. “They said they would hold further discussions on the law in committee, but they didn’t,” Akın said. “They will buy and sell the right to pollute nature and the air, thereby legitimizing pollution.”
Environmental organizations also condemned the bill, with the TEMA Foundation stating that “the losers are people and nature.” The group said the law does not meet the criteria of a true climate framework, describing it instead as a regulation for carbon markets.
In a public statement TEMA said the law omits essential climate policy components such as fossil fuel phase-out, a just transition strategy and mechanisms to ensure that revenues generated from carbon pricing benefit society. The foundation expressed hope that the legislation would be overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Critics further noted that the law imposes financial burdens on small businesses and lacks mechanisms to enforce emissions reductions or ensure equitable adaptation planning. Activists warn that it reduces climate action to a commercial transaction rather than addressing the root causes of environmental degradation.