The European Commission underlined the importance of climate change and its impact on employment and the labour market during the Climate Change at Work panel on Monday 30 April at the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce in Nicosia. This event aimed to raise awareness about the enormous impact of climate change on the economy particularly on the emergence of new professions in the Turkish Cypriot community.
After the opening speech by Mr.Alessandro Bianciardi, Mr. Rifat Ünal Sayman, Regional Director at the Regional Environmental Center in Turkey, presented the EU policy and implementations on employment effects of climate change, the impact on the labour market, and examples from EU Countries and Turkey. In addition to this, Dr.Tufan Ekici and Dr.İbrahim Kahramanoğlu made presentations about the impact of climate change on the agriculture sector and on new professions in the Turkish Cypriot community.
As part of the EU Aid programme for the Turkish Cypriot community a number of projects have been supported to address climate and environmental challenges. These include environment and infrastructure projects, energy efficiency projects for SMEs and projects funded under the labour market and education sectors.