Located mainly in Asia, but with a small part of its land considered to be in Europe, the Republic of Turkey has a land area of 302,535 sq. mi. (779,452 sq. km.), with a population of 74,877,000 (2006 est.) and a population density of240 people per sq. mi. (93 people per sq. km.). Istanbul, the former capital and the largest city, has a population density of 13,256 people per sq. mi. (5,137 per sq. km.). The present capital, Ankara, has a population of 3,641,900, with a population density of 13,328 per sq. mi. (1,424 per sq. km.). Some 32 percent of the land area of Turkey is arable, with 4 percent under permanent cultivation, and an additional 16 percent is used as meadows or pasture. Some 26 percent of the country remains forested, and there is only a small timber industry. In terms of its per capita rate of carbon dioxide emissions, it was 2.6 metric tons per person in 1990, rising to 3.14 metric tons per person by 2004.
Electricity generation in Turkey comes largely from fossil fuels (74.1 percent), with 25 percent being from hydropower. The use of hydropower has not been without controversy. Although it has generated much hydroelectricity, there have been environmental problems with the Illisu Dam in southeastern Turkey, as well as with some other projects. The production of electricity is responsible for 38 percent of Turkey’s carbon dioxide emissions, with 8 percent coming from other energy industries, 25 percent being from manufacturing, 20 percent from transportation, and 13 percent from residential use. Heavy use of coal means that 44 percent of the emissions are the result of the use of solid fuels, with 37 percent being from liquid fuels, 10 percent from gaseous fuels, and 9 percent from the manufacture of cement.
Turkey has suffered some effects of global warming and climate change, with a rise in the average temperature in the country resulting in the snow-melt on some of the previously snow-covered peaks in the east of the country. More important, it has also led to the alienation of agricultural land throughout the country, with the need for water for irrigation and drinking leading to water shortages in some rural areas. There have also been problems in the agriculturally poor eastern part of Turkey, where there is already low productivity in farms and high levels of poverty.
The Turkish government took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. It has not expressed an opinion on the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
