First Lady Erdoğan chairs UN Zero Waste Advisory Board meeting
Istanbul : Delivering remarks at the meeting at Dolmabahçe Presidential Office, First Lady Erdoğan stated that the board meetings, the first of which was held on November 1, 2023, and the second one on June 5, 2024, usher in new horizons and serve as a very productive gathering for all.
Thanking the members for the inspiration they instill and the efforts they exert, Mrs. Erdoğan drew attention to the new projects that took shape during the meeting, and, addressing the participants, added: “I would like to state that we have taken note of your valuable proposals and have already launched initiatives to implement them.”
Stressing that there is not even one single minute to waste, First Lady Erdoğan said: “Just 54 days after our last meeting, the world has reached the Earth Overshoot Day. This means that we have consumed in seven months the resources our earth can regenerate in one year. Every consumption we make since then actually means stealing from the future. The year 2024 has gone down in history as the first-ever year when the global warming limit of 1.5 ºC, a critical threshold, has been surpassed. The number of natural disasters due to climate change has reached record levels.”
First Lady Erdoğan went onto say: “In Spain, we witnessed the most devastating flood disaster in history; and in the U.S., we witnessed Hurricane Helene, which caused significant losses of life. In Africa, 7 million people have been directly affected by excessive rainfall and drought. As of this year, over 120 million people have been displaced across the world because of natural disasters due to climate change. There are five years left until the 2030 goals, set with the promise of ‘not leaving anyone behind’; yet, we are still far from the promised point.”
Noting that participants of the meeting are able to see the direct relation between the disasters that take place and the habits of production and consumption, First Lady Erdoğan said: “We know that the Zero Waste, as a philosophy of life, offers a roadmap that can reverse the current trajectory. Getting this awareness understood and disseminating it should be the primary agenda item of our board. We should benefit from the International Day of Zero Waste to this end.”
Drawing attention to the need for a global leadership to unite the efforts taking place in various geographies of the world around a shared vision, Mrs. Erdoğan stressed that the board should undertake this role by bringing wide audiences together on the path to solution.