Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Elif Selin Calik
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Will the UAE COP28 roadmap help the region for the energy revolution?
This week, a ground-breaking green energy investment of the UAE hit all the media outlets: The UAE has pledged $4.5 billion to help speed up the development of clean energy projects in Africa. This means UAE pitches itself as Africa’s carbon credits leader. According to the American consultancy, Mckinsey, the...
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Turkiye’s post-quake city transformation: Finance vs policy
“It is like The Pianist movie scene with collapsed buildings. Just like how Roman Polanski depicts a city of a war-torn country with devastated cities. Now, Kahramanmaras is the same.” This is how one of my journalist friends who witnessed the devastation of the earthquakes described the scenes the day after....
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Turkiye NATO agenda: Sweden bid, F-16s and war mediation
Last week was, by all standards, a historical turning point for the relationship between Turkiye and its NATO allies. Three important developments were witnessed at the Vilnius summit. First, there was the long-awaited breakthrough in negotiations, which allowed Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to finally approve Sweden’s membership. Secondly,...
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Hydrogen money can be beneficial for green infrastructure in the Middle East
The conversation about climate change needs to shift from simply reducing carbon emissions to ensuring developing nations can take part in a diversified green economy in the Middle East region. Yet, first it is important to accept that governments have hardly any source of revenues, independent from oil and...
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The challenges facing Erdogan’s new cabinet
After a very tight first round, Turkiye’s Erdogan has emerged the clear winner of the presidential election last Sunday. After overcoming the biggest political challenges ever faced, with a coalition comprising six opposition parties, he will hope his third term will further tighten his grip on power. Opponents have expressed dismay,...
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Is Turkiye democratic enough not to apply forced repatriation and politicising refugees?
Syrian refugees in Turkiye have emerged as a political flashpoint in the country’s ongoing election journey, with leading opposition candidates competing to offer the most aggressive proposal to deport the refugees to Syria. Although the plans vary in substance, they share a disregard for international law – and Turkiye’s...
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Are Turkiye’s nuclear power ambitions a threat to regional safety?
Everyone who watched the American disaster thriller movie called ‘The China Syndrome’, directed by James Bridges in 1979, remembers that the events leading up to the “accident” in ‘The China Syndrome’ are, indeed, based on actual occurrences at nuclear plants. Turkiye’s newly launched nuclear power plant reminds us of...
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On World Water Day, spare a thought for the Middle East
The Middle East may have an abundance of oil and gas, but it has very few natural water sources. This is fast becoming a source of tension. According to three UN Secretaries-General, water may well be the cause of future conflict in the region. “The next war in the...
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Aid Diplomacy after earthquake
While the world is dealing with the first anniversary of the deadly war in Ukraine, the solidarity shown towards Turkish society after its devastating earthquake is one of the best examples of “aid diplomacy” in modern history. Even though Turkiye was against Sweden’s and Finland’s membership of NATO, less...
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The Middle East and its move away from oil and gas
In 2022, the biggest energy issue in the Middle East was Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil cut as the world economy entered into a period of ‘heightened uncertainty and rising challenges’. In October, OPEC cut its 2022 forecast for growth in world oil demand for a...
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Turkiye’s energy outlook and achieving energy independence
“This century will be, to a large extent, about energy. Energy security is a theme where NATO is in the process of defining its added value. Protection of critical energy infrastructure,” these were the words of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the former NATO secretary-general, they were delivered during a...
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Global energy markets apocalypse in 2022
The year 2022 saw the energy topic return intensely to the attention of media, political leaders and public opinion after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Russia’s war has had huge impacts on the global energy system, disrupting supply and demand patterns and fracturing long‐standing trading relationships. Each energy...
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COP27 has shown we need a new taxation order in the world
For three decades, world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP) have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and greener energy sources. This year, COP27 finished with an agreement for an historic “Loss and Damage Fund”. In negotiations that went down to the wire over the weekend, countries...
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IEA World Energy Outlook 2022 and energy transition following global energy crisis
This week, the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2022 was published, highlighting the UN Climate change Conference (COP27) and energy transition in the age of the Ukraine war. The 524 page IEA report IEA speaks of the need for a 38 per cent fall in CO2 emissions to...
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Russia gas and Turkiye
To produce energy takes ages, but setting up new diplomatic ties, changes day by day. Even 24 hours are too many to follow all these changes in the 21st Century’s energy wars. Literally, we have seen this in 2020 during the energy price war between Mohammed Bin Salman and...
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Aegean Sea tensions threaten NATO’ s unity
For the first time in its long history, NATO’s unity is under threat as a result of the rift between two of its members; Turkiye and Greece and their manoeuvres in the Aegean Sea. The latest crisis between the two began in August when Turkiye accused its neighbour of...
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Queen Elizabeth II and Turkiye
The United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II died last Thursday, aged 96. The flowers for her funeral will apparently be shipped from Turkiye. This is not as unusual as it first appears. In 2008, during her first visit to Turkiye after more than 30 years, the Queen delivered a speech...
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Why Africa needs Turkish drones
After NATO countries, African countries are also knocking at the door of Turkiye for collaboration with the defence industry. With Turkiye’s Bayraktar TB2 Drone, Turkiye has been experiencing high demand on collaboration with African countries. In Africa, the TB2 Bayraktar model is in high demand after it was used...
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Ukrainian refugees should be resettled and empowered before it’s too late
At least 12 million people have fled their homes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UN has confirmed. More than five million are refugees in neighbouring countries, while seven million others are believed to be internally displaced within Ukraine itself. If there is no ceasefire, the UN High Commissioner...
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Four special projects in the MENA region leading the way to NET ZERO 2050
As I highlight in my newly published book “The Renaissance of Smart Energy”, the Middle East region is more than the Syrian war or visits to Dubai for super-posh expensive shopping. The following are four landmark green innovative projects that can make the Middle East sustainable: Saudi Arabia: NEOM...
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When the dust settles, how Africa will help the EU energy crisis
Europe is grappling with an unprecedented energy crisis. And its options are few and far between. However, Africa has emerged as, perhaps, the most viable alternative source of energy. But just how did Europe get here? It started with the crippling economic sanctions it imposed on Russia over Moscow’s...
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The Middle East can help resolve Europe’s energy crisis with green energy investments
Despite the many political crises that plague the Middle East, the region still has the capacity to become energy independent. The East Mediterranean Gas Forum formed by Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, and Palestine in 2019, is an encouraging indicator that the countries of the region can...
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Turkiye is getting caught between NATO and Russia
Reacting to the ongoing tension within NATO after Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that it is important to note that no other NATO member state had suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkiye; and that NATO’s borders with Russia will double...
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Davos myth: Unchanging poverty and changing climate
The main takeaway from this year’s Davos conference was best expressed by the US Vermont independent senator and former presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders when he said; “The oligarchs party and the poor suffer.” While some billionaires, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk, have been focusing on technological solutions driven...