Turkey calls for stricter air quality monitoring

Increasing pollution levels in Ankara are reflective of steadily worsening air quality across the country as a whole, it has been claimed.

Heating units, motor vehicles, coal fuel usage, industrial facilities and meteorological conditions have all been cited as contributing factors in both Ankara and Turkey's decreasing air quality, hurriyet.com reports.

Secretary for the country's Environmental Engineers' Chamber Heval Saritas explained: "There are 13 parameters measured for air pollution in the EU but less parameters are considered in our country. This prevents us having a healthy opinion on the quality of our environment,"

Mr Saritas added that the single biggest contributory factor in poor air quality in Turkey is the high price of natural gas, leading to an increased dependence on high-carbon fossil fuels such as coal.

The European Union recently announced that it would consider increasing current carbon credit emissions importation limits by 11 per cent until 2020 for energy and manufacturing companies.