Scientific paper ID 2497 : 2024/3

One of the main instruments for achieving the greenhouse gas emission reduction target set by the European Union with the European Green Deal is the Border Carbon Regulation Mechanism. With this mechanism, the EU aims to protect Europe`s competitiveness against the cost of green transformation on the one hand and to increase the effort to combat climate change at the global level on the other.

While the Border Carbon Regulation Mechanism aims to align the competitiveness of high-emission products, which are generally produced at lower cost, with alternative products that can be produced with relatively lower emissions but at higher cost, its essence is a tax on imported products based on their carbon content.

Carbon regulation at the border will certainly affect Turkey`s foreign trade relations with the EU, along with major economies such as China, Russia, India and the US. Research shows that sectors exporting from Turkey to the EU will be affected by increased costs. According to different scenarios, GDP would be 5.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent higher, respectively, and greenhouse gas emissions would be 16.5 per cent and 15 per cent lower, respectively, if measures are taken in line with the EU`s green economic transformation.

In this study, can the European Green Deal be considered as a risk for Turkey as well as a brand new opportunity as a means of transformation aiming at sustainable development? Can significant improvements in greenhouse gas emissions be achieved in this way? Can it be an important alternative to Turkey`s search for a sustainable development strategy? The answers to these questions have been investigated.