Turkish first lady launches global zero waste initiative at COP31 Climate Change Conference

Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and chair of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board of Eminent Persons on Zero Waste, said the Global Zero Waste Alliance represents a commitment to turning shared responsibility into lasting cooperation. The High-Level Meeting of First Ladies of the Global Zero Waste Alliance was held in Antalya, Türkiye, hosted by Emine Erdogan as part of the COP31 UN Climate Change Conference.

Addressing the opening session, Erdogan said she was pleased to welcome participants to Türkiye for COP31, bringing together more than 100,000 participants from 195 countries, including more than 100 world leaders, to help shape humanity's shared future. She said the scale of participation demonstrated both the strength of collective commitment and the magnitude of the responsibility they had undertaken. "For decades, we have discussed rising temperatures, drought and forest loss at climate summits, listening to warnings from scientists.

These efforts have undoubtedly helped build global awareness. "However, we have now reached a point where we must move beyond reports, warnings and targets that outline the scale of the climate crisis. The value of knowledge is also measured by the decisions we can turn it into," she said. Emphasizing that the main challenge was not a lack of knowledge about what needed to be done but the determination to put that knowledge into practice, Erdogan said Türkiye's decision to describe COP31 as an "Action COP" reflected this approach.

"We want to measure success not only by the commitments made, but also by the changes they bring to people's lives, our cities and our production methods. The Zero Waste Movement, which we launched nine years ago, is a concrete example of this approach. "Awareness that began in households has now evolved into a system extending from schools and municipalities to public institutions and factories. During this process, Türkiye's recycling rate rose from 13% to more than 37%.

"More importantly, a sense of responsibility has developed among people of all ages and become part of their daily lives," she said. Erdogan said one of the most important lessons learned during this process was that waste begins not in the trash bin but in the decisions made before products are consumed. Whether a product is truly necessary, how it is manufactured and how long it is used all determine the amount of waste generated. -'We must also measure our success by the waste we prevent' Recalling that producing more had long been regarded as a sign of development and consuming more as an indicator of prosperity, Erdogan said recycling waste had subsequently come to be seen as a measure of success.

While acknowledging the importance of recycling, she noted that even the best-managed waste had already consumed soil, water, energy and labor during production. "We must measure our success not only by the waste we recover but also by the waste we prevent from being generated. Achieving a higher quality of life with fewer resources must be at the heart of our understanding of development," she said. "If waste begins with decisions, we must ask: Who makes these decisions?"

Erdogan said, pointing to global production and consumption patterns as major sources of pressure on natural resources. "We talk about the health risks of tobacco. Yet according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the tobacco industry causes the loss of 600 million trees and consumes 22 billion tons of water every year. "Similarly, in a world where the fashion and textile industries generate 92 million tons of waste annually, the increasingly shorter lifespan of products cannot be explained solely by consumer choices.

"In the digital world, alongside business models designed to keep us in front of screens for longer, we must also question the energy and water requirements of the infrastructure that continues to expand," she said. 'Corporate responsibility must also be global' Erdogan said artificial intelligence offered significant opportunities to reduce waste, improve production efficiency and develop new solutions to environmental challenges. "However, we cannot assess technological progress separately from its environmental costs.

We cannot build the technologies of the future on the wasteful habits of the past. "The economic gains of one company must not come at the expense of another society's depleted water resources or polluted soil. "Therefore, we must develop common standards that make major companies' resource consumption transparent, subject their environmental impacts to independent assessment and strengthen accountability. The responsibility of companies operating globally must also be global," she said.

Erdogan also stressed that decisions shaping the future of nature went beyond production and consumption, noting that war, one of humanity's most devastating decisions, inflicted environmental damage that could last for generations. She cited ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan as examples. Drawing attention to the devastation in Gaza, she said 61 million tons of rubble had accumulated there, according to the UN Environment Programme.

She added that 97% of fruit orchards and olive groves had been destroyed and that most of the remaining freshwater resources had been contaminated. Erdogan warned that recovering from the destruction could take generations. "At a time when global military spending has reached a historic high of $2.9 trillion, let us consider for a moment what could be achieved if even a small portion of these resources were allocated to humanity's shared challenges.

"Destroyed cities could be rebuilt, degraded landscapes could be restored, and peace could become the climate of every continent," she said. -'We will encourage the establishment of new partnerships' Erdogan said no country could independently transform the decisions made in households, production processes or political institutions. "The Global Zero Waste Alliance, which we are introducing today, represents our determination to turn this shared responsibility into lasting cooperation.

"Through the alliance, we aim to establish a strong platform for cooperation where countries can learn from one another's successful practices, develop joint projects and expand local solutions on a global scale," she said. She outlined five priority areas for the alliance: zero waste and the circular economy; plastic and packaging waste; zero-waste zones; food and organic waste; and education and youth. The initiative will operate through three complementary structures, Erdogan said.

She explained that the annual Zero Waste Forum would provide a platform to discuss shared priorities and proposed solutions, while the Istanbul Platform would help turn these proposals into concrete projects and implementation partnerships. Through the Global Zero Waste Alliance, the initiative also aims to reach wider geographical areas and encourage new partnerships between countries, she added. "Our aim is to bring international organizations, local governments, academia, the private sector and civil society together around common goals.

"These challenges cannot be solved through the efforts of a single country. We must bring together our knowledge, resources and experience," Erdogan said. Call for joint action Erdogan said every first lady attending the meeting had the potential to make a significant contribution to this transformation, noting that they could reach different segments of society and bring public institutions, civil society and the business community together around shared objectives.

She invited the first ladies to become active stakeholders in the Global Zero Waste Alliance and contribute their countries' experiences and successful practices to the joint initiative. Erdogan said she hoped the meeting would lead to new partnerships, the development of joint projects and measurable progress. She urged participants to return home from Antalya with not only new lists of commitments but also the joint initiatives they had begun together.

Thanking the first ladies for their participation and commitment to humanity's shared future, Erdogan expressed her hope that the Global Zero Waste Alliance would benefit countries and all of humanity.