Minister Kurum signs 191 million euro sub-loan agreement with World Bank

Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and COP31 President Murat Kurum signed a 191 million euro sub-loan agreement with the World Bank within the framework of the 'Green and Future Cities Project' in Antalya, as part of the events of the 5th day of COP31.

World Bank Vice President Valerie Levkov and UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach also attended the 'COP31 Türkiye Platform Signing Ceremony with International Organizations' held at the Zero Waste Museum in the Antalya Blue Zone and each delivered a speech. The signing ceremony also included the presentation of the 'Türkiye Resilient Cities Country Platform', prepared within the scope of the Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility (SURFF) developed through cooperation between İLBANK, UN-Habitat and the World Bank.

Minister Kurum explained the project's targets with concrete examples: the aim is to bring 1.2 billion liters of water per year to Lake Meke in Konya — a volume that could fill approximately 480 Olympic swimming pools. For Lake Beyşehir, 712 million liters of water will be returned to nature annually by treating the wastewater of approximately 5,000 households.

Alongside this signature, Kurum also announced the 150 million euro renewable energy project with the Asian Development Bank, which he shared with the public for the first time. Solar and wind power plants with a total capacity of 186 megawatts will be installed in Hatay, Malatya, Istanbul's Bağcılar district, Tokat, Trabzon, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep and Mardin. It is projected that approximately 320 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy will be generated annually from the project, 120,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions will be prevented, and energy equivalent to that of approximately 150,000 households will be produced. The environmental benefit is considered equivalent to 6 million trees, while approximately 800 million liters of water savings per year are also expected.

At the start of his speech, Kurum offered his condolences for the 4 soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Malatya.