The workshop was kicked off with opening remarks by Mr. Volkan Polat, Head of the Department of the Monitoring of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Directorate of Climate Change in Türkiye and Mrs. Neşen Surmeli-Anaç, Cool Up Project Manager. During the roundtable, participants discussed the ongoing developments in the F-gas regulation, sustainable cooling financing, and the cooling demand modeling for the National Cooling Action Plan. In addition, the workshop aimed at identifying sector problems and solutions, to discuss policy measures and key strategies of the National Cooling Action Plan, and their alignment with national and international goals.

The workshop was attended over 70 participants from important policy and business organizations. Participants were representing key air conditioning and refrigeration organizations. Neslihan Fındık from ISKID, Yaman Duman from ESSIAD, Türkay Yıldırım from SOSIAD, Turgay Yay from ISKAV, Ertuğrul Şen from IZODER, Kadir Isa from TOBB and many more were joined by specialists from Ministries of Trade, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Ministry of Industry and Technology and from important local banks as Akbank and Şekerbank.

The roundtable discussion provided the opportunity to exchange on next steps in the development of the National Cooling Action Plan (NCAP) in Türkiye. The foundation for this discussion was laid on 7 June 2023 by the leadership of the Turkish Climate Change Directorate announcing the launch of the first National Cooling Action Plan (NCAP) in Türkiye at a thematic group meeting of the Cool Up programme attended by key national stakeholders from policy, industry, and academia in Ankara (find more information on the NCAP launch here).

The NCAP is an important step towards sustainable cooling and a contribution to climate neutrality for Türkiye. The Directorate of Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change leads the NCAP development supported by the Cool Up programme.