Kalayc?o?lu Sema and Gönel Feride

Business Perspectives on Environment in Turkey
Sema Kalaycıoğlu and Feride Gönel

Abstract
It is critical to appraise the role of business interests in environmental policy making and implementation in Turkey since private business sectors have become the most important source of economic growth and employment for the last two decades. It is also important to find out how ready and willing the private sector is to pursue environmental objectives in Turkey, in addition to their actual or potential participation in environmental policy making.

The private sector in Turkey often faces domestic micro and macro economic constraints when running their activities. These constraints constitute a great challenge for their commitments to environmental standards, as they must abide by environmental regulations and standards imposed upon them by local and/or central authorities. As the private sector has followed the footsteps of the outward-oriented growth strategies of governments since the early 1980s, it has also faced external economic constraints and environmental challenges: International trade can be considered as an engine for environmental awareness for a sector that is the engine of growth in Turkey. Squeezed between domestic and external economic constraints, but lured by the opportunities of opening itself to the world at the same time, the private sector often positively reacts to adopting environmental standards. However, adopting environmental standards comes with additional costs and when the economy is unstable it is not easy for companies to meet additional costs.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the role of private sector in environmental policy making in Turkey. In the first part of the study, we try to determine the characteristics of the business sectors in Turkey and their impact on the economy as well as on the environment.

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