A Turkish environmental body has struck a formal partnership with organisers of London Climate Action Week, extending an international push on waste reduction and resource efficiency in the run-up to Türkiye’s hosting of the COP31 climate summit. The agreement, signed in August, follows the publication earlier the same month of a book examining how zero waste principles can be applied to scientific research in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The Zero Waste Foundation announced the two developments within ten days of each other, linking Türkiye’s polar research programme with a wider international climate network based in London. The Foundation first launched a book titled “Zero Waste in the Polar Regions” on 7 August, produced jointly with the Polar Research Institute of TÜBİTAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye. Then, on 17 August, it signed a cooperation protocol with London Climate Action Week covering climate action, zero waste and the circular economy.
A book born of two national programmes
The polar research book draws together contributions from 18 scientists who have taken part in Turkish expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, examining climate change, environmental pollution and waste reduction through scientific data. Rather than focusing solely on how waste is collected, the publication looks at how scientific expeditions are planned from the outset, how materials and resources are used, and how energy, water and logistics are managed once researchers are in the field. The underlying aim, according to the Foundation, is to prevent waste before it is created and to limit the environmental footprint of research carried out in some of the world’s most fragile regions.
The book explicitly links two Turkish government initiatives that both began in 2017: the national Zero Waste project and the country’s programme of scientific expeditions to the polar regions. Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Türkiye’s Minister of Industry and Technology, said the publication brought the two together for the first time. “The Zero Waste initiative launched under the leadership of H.E. Emine Erdoğan has grown step by step from a national initiative into a global one,” he said, adding that Turkish scientific expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic, organised under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Türkiye, had allowed Turkish scientists to build a stronger presence in polar research. “Through this book, these two initiatives have come together,” he said.
The publication also argues that the polar regions serve as critical early indicators of global climate change, meaning that environmental shifts recorded there carry consequences well beyond the Arctic and Antarctic themselves. That framing is intended to give the research relevance to audiences and policymakers far removed from the geography in which the work was actually carried out. The study is also presented as an extension of the wider zero waste vision promoted by Emine Erdoğan, who founded the Zero Waste Movement, chairs the United Nations’ High-Level Advisory Board on Zero Waste and holds the position of Honorary President of the Zero Waste Foundation.
Formal ties to London’s climate network
The second development, the protocol signed with London Climate Action Week, establishes an institutional partnership intended to strengthen knowledge exchange, joint initiatives and international dialogue on zero waste and circular economy approaches. London Climate Action Week itself brings together representatives from government, city administrations, business, finance, academia, civil society and local communities, giving the Foundation a route into a broad international climate ecosystem centred on the UK capital.
The agreement was signed by Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and a COP31 High-Level Climate Champion, alongside Nick Henry, Climate Action Founder and CEO. “After this cooperation protocol, I hope we will carry out strong work and organize joint events at COP31 and London Climate Action Week,” Ağırbaş said. The comment points to the practical focus of the arrangement, which centres on joint programming and exchange rather than symbolic cooperation alone.
Setting the stage for COP31
Both announcements arrive as Türkiye prepares to host COP31, giving the London partnership a wider diplomatic backdrop even as its immediate purpose remains practical: linking the Foundation’s work directly with the London Climate Action Week network ahead of the summit. Organisers have framed the two August developments, the polar research book and the London protocol, as complementary strands of the same broader effort, one rooted in scientific data gathered in some of the planet’s most remote environments, the other built on institutional cooperation in one of the world’s major financial and diplomatic capitals.
Taken together, the Foundation’s recent activity illustrates an attempt to broaden the definition of zero waste beyond household recycling or municipal waste management. By tying the concept to scientific fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctic on one hand, and to an international climate action network in London on the other, the Foundation is positioning zero waste and circular economy principles as relevant to research planning, resource use and international diplomacy alike, rather than treating it purely as a domestic environmental policy. Whether that broader framing translates into concrete joint projects will likely become clearer as COP31 and future editions of London Climate Action Week approach, with both sides having signalled an intention to organise shared events once the current protocol is put into practice.
