Kadir Has University organised Climate Change Congress on 4 March 2023 with the participation of 100 attendance. In this congress, Assoc. Dr. Taner Arsan, who is the executive director of Mednight and advisor to the rector at Kadir Has University, started with his speech titled EU Projects and MEDNIGHT. During this presentation, four thematic areas were discussed, which were identified as sea and pollution, climate and clean energy sources, diet and nutrition, and life and health. In the section on project partners, general information was provided about the coordinator of the project and 10 participating institutions. The activities that were carried out were explained with the support of visuals. Activities were explained as the Mediterranean Faces of Science Exhibition, Mind the Lab, Expert Voices, and Researchers at Schools, respectively. The European Green Deal (Carbon Footprint) strategies, a series of policy initiatives aimed at making Europe climate-neutral by 2050, led by the European Commission, were also discussed.
Following this introduction, several presentations focusing on climate change were performed by professionals and Erenkoy Rotary Club representatives.
Uygar Özesmi, a naturalist, and founder of Good4Trust.org and Change.org, mentioned that despite civil society efforts and mass campaigns, the destruction of nature continues. In his presentation, he emphasized the need for an organized and effective civil society to protect nature. And he explained that the main reason for this destruction is the economy and proposed a new system called the “prosumer economy.” The Climate Congress continued with a presentation by Prof. Dr. Şener Oktik, a faculty member of Kadir Has University and Honorary Chairman of the Solar Energy Industry Association, titled “United Nations Climate Change Conferences and Turkey”. His presentation summarizes the climate action within the UN sustainable development goals. Şafak Özsoy, a geological engineer, gave a presentation on the topic of Sustainability and Climate. In this presentation, the negative impacts of climate change were explained as a priority. Then, three main points that need to be focused on were discussed: the impact of global warming on human and natural life, carbon pricing, and energy sector transformation. Özlem Tut, the Head of the Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Improvement Department, gave a presentation titled “Towards Sustainable Cities and Resilient Istanbul”. Information was provided about Istanbul Renewing, an online platform that aims to transform the risky housing stock in Istanbul into safe, earthquake-resistant, and environmentally friendly buildings. Dr. Semra Baysan, a faculty member of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Istanbul Rumeli University, made a presentation on Climate Change and Technology. Initially, the distribution of global warming by latitude from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and monthly global temperature anomaly data from 1880 to 2021 were presented. Finally, the President of the Acarkent Rotary Club’s ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group), Dr. Yaşar Atacık, gave a presentation on Environmental and Climate Actions in Rotary. Information was provided about ESRAG, which was established in 2016, and its projects and activities were explained in detail to conclude the presentation.
