Turkey

Turkey webinar series:  2022 ESG trends 

Norton Rose Fulbright and Pekin Bayar Mizrahi have organized a webinar series on current ESG topics.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are important for global businesses as the legal and regulatory landscapes change and ESG expectations of investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders grow. Recent regulations in the EU and developments in Turkey create a stronger need for Turkish businesses to learn and adapt ESG initiatives in an expedient manner.

For these reasons, teams from Norton Rose Fulbright and Pekin Bayar Mizrahi share their extensive knowledge on different aspects of ESG in a webinar series. The series took place in June and has three online sessions on the following topics:

• ESG overview and path to carbon neutrality
• Green finance and sustainable finance
• Social and governance issues of ESG

Register for the webinar series

Borsa Istanbul issues report on Sustainability Principles compliance for consultation in Turkey

Borsa Istanbul A.Ş has submitted a template report on Sustainability Principles compliance for public consultation. This template foresees explanations about the status of compliance and reasons for non-compliance for each of the principles under the subtitles of the following main titles of the Sustainability Principles: (a) General Principles, (b) Environmental Principles, (c) Social Principles and (d) Corporate Governance Principles. The draft report template will be finalized at the end of the consultation period.

Capital Markets Board of Turkey publishes guidelines on green financing

The Capital Markets Board of Turkey aims to bring the issuance of green/sustainable debt instruments and lease certificates in line with international standards in its “Guidelines on Green and Sustainable Debt Instruments and Lease Certificates”, published on February 24, 2022. The Guidelines aim to increase transparency, honesty, consistency and comparability for financing projects which contribute to environmental sustainability, Projects which take into consideration the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Green Deal, the 11th Development Plan and the 2021 Economy Reform Package of Turkey, and the Paris Climate Treaty, are based on the Green Bond Principles of the International Capital Markets Association. The Guidelines seek to regulate the fundamental principles to be followed during green project financing and set forth four main components for framework certificates:

• Use of funds received from the issuance
• Project assessment and election process
• Management of funds received from the issuance; and
• Reporting
• By increasing transparency, honesty, consistency and comparability for financing projects which contribute to environmental sustainability, the Capital Markets Board

Mining regulation amended

Mining permits are to be made available in olive plantations to applicants who agree to move the olive trees elsewhere or rehabilitate the area once the mining operations are complete, in accordance with the rules and regulations imposed by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Mining Affairs General Directorate amends the Regulation on Mining on March 1, 2022 to make this possible.