A Public Energy Policy Proposal for Turkey in the Light of Econometric Findings

Abstract

Energy supply security is one of the most debated issues in the energy sector in recent years. Although there is no clear agreed definition of energy supply security, there are determinations that energy should be cheap, sustainable, continuous, and available in order to ensure energy supply security. The wars and political instabilities in the region where Turkey is located have caused the issue of energy supply security to gain importance in recent years. Therefore, Turkey continues to work in areas such as oil and natural gas exploration and production, coal extraction, increasing renewable energy supply, ensuring energy efficiency, and nuclear power generation to ensure energy supply security. However, although these methods such as oil and natural gas exploration and production are useful in terms of energy supply security, they increase Turkey's fossil fuel dependency and this situation weakens Turkey's efforts to combat climate change, which is one of Turkey's goals. In this study, the impact of coal, natural gas, oil, and renewable energy production on energy dependence, which is among the most important causes of energy supply security, between 1987-2020 is analyzed by the ARDL cointegration test method. In addition, the empirical analysis is concluded by using the Toda-Yamamoto causality test to observe the causality relationship between the variables. The findings of the analysis lead to the conclusion that Turkey's domestic energy production should be restructured according to environmental priorities.