06.06.2026 14:51
The Zero Waste Movement, growing under the leadership of Emine Erdoğan, Chair of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Zero Waste and Honorary Chair of the Zero Waste Foundation, continues to shape the implementation agenda of global climate action. The prepared declaration reaffirmed a shared commitment to strengthening the Climate Action Agenda, accelerating implementation, and expanding transformation policies centered on resource efficiency.
Within the scope of the Zero Waste Forum 2026, the most important actors of global climate governance came together in Istanbul. The Joint Statement on Global Climate Action, published by current and former High-Level Climate Champions within the framework of the forum, once again revealed the strategic role of zero waste and circular economy approaches in realizing climate goals.
Prepared under the leadership of Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and COP31 High-Level Climate Champion, and Dan Ioschpe, COP30 High-Level Climate Champion, the statement confirmed the joint commitment to strengthening the Climate Action Agenda, accelerating implementation, and spreading transformation policies based on resource efficiency.
Emine Erdogan delivered a speech at the opening of the Zero Waste Forum 2026. The statement emphasized that the Zero Waste approach, initiated by Emine Erdogan in 2017 and transformed into a global environmental movement by the United Nations General Assembly resolution, offers not only a waste management model in the fight against climate change but also a holistic transformation vision centered on sustainable development, resource efficiency, and circular economy.
Highlighting the importance of the Climate Action Agenda, which strengthens the role of cities, businesses, investors, academia, civil society, and other non-state actors in implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement, the statement expressed that the COP31 process hosted by Turkey will accelerate implementation-focused climate solutions.
Within the scope of the statement, goals to further strengthen zero waste and circular economy approaches based on resource efficiency, energy security, renewable energy, local climate action, and multi-stakeholder collaborations, which are among the priorities of COP31 chaired by Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, were supported.
In the statement, which demonstrated the joint will towards a fair, inclusive, and resilient climate future under the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action, the establishment of the "Zero Waste and Circularity Climate High-Level Champions Working Group" was adopted. The Working Group aims to make zero waste and circular economy practices an integral part of long-term climate strategies by mobilizing cities, businesses, investors, and civil society. In his evaluation following the joint statement, Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and COP31 High-Level Climate Champion, stated that it is critically important to move from producing solutions to implementing existing solutions on a larger scale and more rapidly in the climate fight. Ağırbaş expressed that they will focus on strengthening implementation-oriented climate action during the COP31 process and ensuring this transformation becomes visible in the daily lives of societies.
COP30 High-Level Climate Champion Dan Ioschpe, noting that despite the increase in climate commitments globally, there are significant differences in practices, pointed out that preventing food waste, reducing methane emissions, circular economy solutions, city-scale climate practices, and spreading sustainable production and consumption models are among the priority areas.
This joint statement published within the scope of the Zero Waste Forum 2026 is considered a new milestone that strengthens international cooperation in the transformation journey of the Zero Waste Movement, which has grown globally under the leadership of Emine Erdogan, from climate diplomacy to implementation.