« Türkiye ve Çevresinde Çevrenin Yeniden Kompozisyonları, Temsilleri ve Kullanımları » semineri kapsamında
9 Kasım 2015 Pazartesi saat 14:30’da IFEA’da
Ayşen Eren (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi)
« New Geographies Of Vulnerability Or New Geographies Of Green Energy: The Emerging Stresses On The River Valleys of Turkey With The Transformation Of Water-Energy Nexus »
The Turkish hydropower sector is going through a considerable transformation in last decade. Justified by the narratives of the national energy security and emerging energy crisis, the Turkish state is committed to liberalize the energy sector. Although first steps were taken in 1980s by incrementally allowing private investment in hydropower sector to generate electricity, in early 2000s the state launched rather a radical hydropower development program to open all the river valleys to private sector for energy production, liberalizing the development and electricity generation activities. The program mainly promotes the small-river hydropower plants (SRHP). Despite SRHPs are acclaimed as providers of green renewable energy, and therefore funded by international renewable energy funds, and further participated in carbon trade markets, they are transforming the river valleys into the geographies of energy and increasing the environmental and social vulnerability prominently. Furthermore, the state is aiming to liberalize the national electricity market in order to link it to global energy markets by changing the pricing mechanisms and connecting Turkish grid system to European energy networks. The river valleys will be exposed to new sources of stresses by this electricity market liberalization. Drawing from the PhD dissertation research, I will provide a case study by situating the river valleys and the locals living in these valleys in a political, economical, social and geographical context and critically examine their vulnerabilities in relation with the transformation of water- energy nexus in Turkey by unfolding the structures and the processes, which create and contribute to these vulnerabilities.