Local official Nejla Isik is among the villagers living beside a coal mine who demand that world leaders gathering in Türkiye for COP31 climate talks leave the conference venue to inspect the devastation decades of lignite extraction have caused.
Beginning on Monday, the transition to cleaner energy will be among the themes at the UN conference that continues until November 20 in Antalya on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast.
Isik, an elected official for her community, says the government leaders and UN officials need to head a few hundred kilometres west to Ikizkoy, near the Akbelen forest in Türkiye’s southwestern Mugla province, and see for themselves the impact of coal on nature and on people’s lives.
Villagers, who for years have protested against coal mining, have been fined and arrested.
“They should come here, those heads of state. They should come not to Antalya but to Akbelen, to Ikizkoy,” said Isik. Her home in Ikizkoy is only a few hundred metres behind a lignite mine that has crept nearer over decades of expansion. Lignite is the lowest grade of coal, meaning burning it releases higher amounts of carbon dioxide than more energy-dense coal.
So far one of the prominent aims of COP31 is to agree a voluntary goal on increasing electrification, proposed by host country Türkiye, but unless the electricity is low-carbon it will not curb planet-warming emissions.
Last year, coal was Türkiye’s largest electricity source, generating 34 per cent of the country’s power, making Türkiye Europe’s biggest coal-fired electricity generator, according to energy think tank Ember. The mines in the Akbelen area provide coal for plants that generate just over 2 per cent of Türkiye’s power, according to the operator’s website.
Villagers and environmental campaigners like Isik, who oppose the expansion of lignite mining, say it has destroyed forest and threatens olive groves, farmland and communities.
The fight against coal has had harsh consequences. Isik’s 26-year-old daughter Esra spent 42 days in pretrial detention after a protest against the planned expropriation of land for mining. A court in July sentenced her to two years in prison for resisting public officials. She is free pending the decision of an appeal.
“This punishment was not just handed to me. It was an attempt to punish everyone in this country who stands up for their rights, their land and their village,” Esra Isik said.
Her mother has for years protested against the expansion of coal mining around her village.
“For 40 years we’ve been living with coal breathing down our necks. I try to live here with the breath of coal, with the dirt of coal,” Nejla Isik said.
The coal supplies the nearby Yenikoy and Kemerkoy power plants, operated by Yenikoy-Kemerkoy Energy, a joint venture involving Limak and IC Ictas.
Limak declined to comment for this story. IC Ictas did not respond to a request for comment.
At a meeting with foreign media on Thursday, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Türkiye was working on a just transition to cleaner energy, but that it was difficult as the mines employ thousands of people.
