Investigation of Governmental Strategy Prioritization for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction based on the UN Environmental Program

Abstract

The greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) are the primary reason for climate change, leading to disastrous events such as storms, droughts, sea-level rise, and floods already being felt worldwide. Many essential contracts and protocols have been discussed and implemented worldwide to reduce GHGE. Among them, The Paris Agreement, the most important global climate agreement to date, was adopted, and Turkey is one of the countries that signed. Similar to country-based incentives, to reduce GHGE globally, the United Nations (UN) has determined strategies at three action levels: government, private and public levels. Based on Turkey’s current situation, in this study, a decision-making procedure that focuses on governmental action plans to reduce the GHGE in Turkey for the determined sectors by the UN environmental program is suggested. To do that, one of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods Best-Worst method, is suggested based on z-numbers that can consider the data’s impreciseness and the hesitancy of the experts. The proposed methodology is applied to prioritize 35 action plans concerning six sectors. Based on the 23-experts judgments, Energy, Industry, and Transportation are determined as the most critical sectors that should be debated. Moreover, committing to more ambitious nationally determined contributions and energy transition strategies is determined as the most appropriate action plan that the policy-makers can consider.