each other and couldn ’ t be separated . This part will define the main issues in Turkey and how they affect the three pillars of sustainability . Moreover , the impact of each issue on the social sustainability will be addressed .
GHG Emissions and Climate Change Turkey considered one the countries that have a rapid increase in urbanization , economy and population . The population in 1990 was approximately 56.47 million , it increased to reach 73.72 million in 2010 and it expected to reach 85.41 million in 2050 . Increasing the population led to increase the urban areas which lead to increase the economic rate . Thus , industrialization has an impact in increasing the economy in Turkey ( PMR 2013 ). It has been noticed that increasing in the economy leads to increase the GHG emissions in the same time .
As shown in Figure 1 , the GHG emissions in 1990 reached approximately 187 million tons tCO 2
e and it increased 114.90 % in 2010 ( TurkStat 2012 ). Thus , it shows that the GHG emissions do not have a significant increase in 2008 and 2009 because of the economic crisis . While in the other years it has a steady increase .
Figure 1 : GHG emissions in Turkey between 1990 and 2010 ( TurkStat 2012 )
The main problem of increasing the GHG emissions especially CO 2 is refers to burning fossil fuels .
High level of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere is lead for the climate change in Turkey . Most of the energy that used in Turkey is supplied by imports , so it considered high energy importing country ( Kaygusuz 2003 ). Turkey is an energy intensive country when it ’ s compared with the developed countries . After the studies that conducted by Turkish Statistical Institute in 2012 , it shows that GHG emissions mostly came from energy and industrial sectors as shown in Figure 2 . In 2010 , the energy sector recorded the highest GHG emissions sector which reached 70.9 % of the total GHG emissions while the industrial sector took the second place . Energy sector could include residential , manufacturing , electricity generation and transportation .
Air Pollution The most critical issue and threaten the human health in Turkey is air pollution . A rapid economic growth , population growth and energy consumption in Turkey lead to increase the air pollution . When comparing Turkey ’ s carbon emissions per capita to EU advanced countries , it seems that Turkey has the highest ( Bilen et al . 2008 ). Man-made activities and natural sources emit dangerous pollutants to the air . These activities can include ; burning fossil fuels to produce electricity
Turkey ’ s environmental issues and challenges toward sustainability 125