The impact of remote working on Türkiye’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions: Learning from the experiences of Covid-19 era

Abstract

Remote working emerged as an important alternative to office working. Türkiye put in force this practice in certain months of 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic that led to serious decline in energy consumption in this period. The aim of this study is to find out the contribution of remote working on reducing fuel consumption in passenger car and electricity demand in case the country’s whole potential is used. This article also analyzes the effect of remote working practices on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Results show that the country can reduce 1.8 million tons of oil equivalent of its’ energy consumption which corresponds to 1.66% of the total energy consumption and USD 1.4 billion with 2019 prices. With a total of 7.73 million tons CO2 eq. emissions mitigation, Türkiye will be able to reduce its transport and electricity related emissions by 3.2% and 3.79%, respectively. Therefore, considering that Türkiye is a net fossil fuel importer country and a party to the Paris Agreement, it is necessary to promote remote working as a complementary energy efficiency and climate change policy. It is beneficial to consider the effect of remote working on energy consumption, including natural gas, during energy crises.