IUE WILL BUILD TURKEY’S NETWORK IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

“Sustainable Development Solutions Network” (UNSDSN), which is one of the global initiatives of UN,  hosted 100 selected scientists world-wide at the First Siena Solutions Conference held at University of Siena, Italy. Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Efe Biresselioğlu, Rana Zincir Celal, Global Centers, Istanbul, Deniz Öztürk, Representative of BM Global Compact Office, Turkey, Prof. Dr. Bilgiç and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cılız of Bosporus University, attended the conference.  Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University directed the conference that focused on solutions initiatives in the Mediterranean Region.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Biresselioğlu stated that there were structural gaps in the management of sustainable development of Mediterranean Region, and they discussed working on solutions in regard to this region at the meetings. He pointed out the importance of geopolitical location of Turkey and said, “Environmental, social, and economic sustainable development stand out.  The role of energy in this matter is remarkable. Last year, Turkey spent 60 billion dollars on energy imports alone. Turkey, with its rapidly growing economy and thus rapidly growing foreign dependency on energy, needs to make special efforts to maintain sustainable development. Local structuring is also important. Therefore, I recommended establishment of a special unit for Turkey at Mediterranean Region network. Izmir University of Economics and Bosporus University will begin joint studies on this network.”