Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Electricity, provided by states in general and with public service understanding as a monopoly until the 1980’s was privatized with globalization and started to be sold by companies according to market conditions. Due to the constant increase in demand for electricity, companies are putting pressure on governments for the unlimited use of natural resources for electricity generation. Considerable environmental damage occurs during the process of removing raw materials such as coal, petroleum, natural gas from underground or converting these raw materials to electric energy. Even hydroelectric power plants, which are among the renewable energy sources, can cause environmental degradation because of unlimited and uncontrolled production. In the areas where natural resources are excluded and in the power plants where electricity production is carried out, the environmental damage is embodied on the local scale as deforestation, the disappearance of agricultural land, and water and air pollution. On the global scale, the chain reaction leads to the degradation of the ecological balance of the whole world. In this study, the environmental impact of the preferred and encouraged use of fossil fuels in electricity generation in Turkey will be evaluated by analyzing the framework of national and international legislation and judicial decisions.