The key facts

  • Emine Erdogan called for going beyond reports, warnings and targets
  • Her remarks were made at the meeting of spouses of heads of state within the Global Zero Waste Alliance on the sidelines of COP31
  • She chairs the UN Secretary-General's advisory board on zero waste

A call for action instead of reports

The wife of the President of Turkey, Emine Erdogan, called for moving from documenting the scale of the climate crisis to concrete solutions. “We are at a point where we must go beyond reports, warnings and targets that highlight the scale of the climate crisis. Because the value of knowledge is also measured by the decisions we can turn it into,” the Anadolu agency quotes her as saying. The statement was published on the Turkish social platform NSosyal.

Context of the speech

Erdogan holds the post of chair of the Advisory Board of Eminent Persons to the UN Secretary-General on the topic of “zero waste.” She also published a video with excerpts from her speech at the high-level meeting of spouses of heads of state and government of the Global Zero Waste Alliance, held on the sidelines of the COP31 climate conference. The publications do not specify which concrete solutions or measures are proposed following the documents adopted at the conference.