Ultimately, what matters is the willingness and determination of states. There’s no way that a government that says, “We must take major steps here,” doesn’t know what to do, whether it be targeting highly polluting technologies, developing green industries, or focusing more on these issues through education. Countries that are taking steps have incorporated lessons on ecology in primary and even nursery school. Teach this to young children, and they behave differently when they grow up. That’s nothing new. It’s not too hard to figure out what to teach either. Take a plastic bag – how long it’s going to stay in the sea when you throw it there, what sort of damage it will cause – all this can be beautifully explained to three- to five-year-olds with films and animations. After that, the child won’t throw a plastic bag away. I heard the other day that a company that sells sporting and camping equipment in Turkey had stopped giving out plastic bags as a step toward a solution. Someone pulled a gun on the cashier for denying them a bag! We live in a country where people can interpret their perceived consumer “rights” as a matter of personal honor. But we have good examples, too. For instance, ENKA schools teach ecology. Our Boğaziçi University students cover these subjects in their summer and winter programs for seven- to eleven-year-olds. The results are quite encouraging.

We need to raise our standards in general. Here’s a striking example: Pupils are told to bring X number of batteries to school to encourage waste separation. Their parents then go and swipe used batteries from collection boxes at MIGROS supermarkets for their kids to take to school. That’s where we are, I’m afraid. Governments need to adopt a much more determined, long-term approach.

I’d like to stress two points. Unless radical improvements are made in cutting waste in power generation and unless this obsession with coal-fired power plants is dropped – and the two are interlinked – our commitments are going to be very, very hard to meet.