Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation 2026: Sustainable Finance And Investment | Legal 500

Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation 2026: Sustainable Finance And Investment

Turkey's Green Taxonomy Regulation establishes a comprehensive national framework for sustainable finance, covering 16 sectors and 137 economic activities. How will this new classification system impact foreign and domestic investment, banking relationships, and corporate compliance obligations? What are the mandatory reporting requirements for financial institutions, and how does Turkey's approach compare to the EU Taxonomy framework?

Pi Legal Consultancy

Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation: A New Framework for Sustainable Finance and Foreign and Domestic Investment represents a critical title for Türkiye. Türkiye policy and law makers have taken a remarkable step in articulating Türkiye Green Taxonomy Regulation.

Introduction

Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation (hereinafter as the“Regulation”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 24 September 2026 and numbered 33380. It is helpful to indicate that the Regulation represents a significant step towards establishing a national sustainable finance framework for a green economy. The present article will highlight core parameters of the Regulation. At the end the present paper, after addressing the concluding remarks for the compliance screening process, the present work will end with a Conclusion Part.

The full text of the Türkiye Green Taxonomy Regulation is available through the Official Gazette.

Key Takeaways for Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation

The Türkiye Green Taxonomy Regulation entered into force on 24 September 2026 and establishes a national classification framework covering 16 sectors and 137 economic activities.

An economic activity must make a substantial contribution to at least one environmental objective, cause no significant harm to the other objectives and comply with minimum social safeguards to qualify as taxonomy-aligned.

Although entities carrying out activities listed in Annex 1 may report voluntarily, specified financial institutions are subject to mandatory reporting. A transitional exemption applies to those financial institutions until 1 January 2029.

The detailed reporting and verification procedures will be further determined by the Climate Change Directorate and the relevant financial regulators.

General Overview for Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation

The adoption of the Türkiye’ Green Taxonomy Regulation was based on Article 8/1(c) of Climate Law No. 7552 and Article 792/D of Presidential Decree No. 4. The Regulation entered into force on the same date after the publication.

What is really significant is that Türkiye’s Green Taxonomy Regulation establishes a classification system for identifying economic activities that contribute to Türkiye’s environmental objectives. Indeed Article 1 describes the main objective as the establishment of the procedures and principles governing the Türkiye Green Taxonomy in order to support economic activities aligned with sustainable development goals, encourage the flow of finance towards sustainable investments and prevent greenwashing in the market.

In that connection, Article 7 addresses 6 main environmental objectives:

a) Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions;

b) Adaptation to climate change;

c) Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources;

ç) Transition to a circular economy;

d) Prevention and control of pollution;

e) Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.

It is remarkable to bear in mind at the outset that the Regulation may have a direct impact upon most companies operating in the real economy in terms of bank financing, foreign investment models, insurance coverage and access to cross border capital.

Taxonomy Eligibility and Taxonomy Alignment

The distinction between taxonomy eligibility and taxonomy alignment is important.

An economic activity is taxonomy-eligible when it falls within one of the activities listed in Annex 1. However, inclusion in Annex 1 does not automatically mean that the activity is environmentally sustainable.

A taxonomy-eligible activity becomes taxonomy-aligned only if it satisfies the applicable technical screening criteria, makes a substantial contribution to at least one environmental objective, causes no significant harm to the remaining objectives and complies with minimum social safeguards.

Main Descriptions

The first thing capturing our attention is that the Regulation addresses core wording for the Green Taxonomy. It is sufficient here to note two main definitions among others, as set forth in Article 4.

In this context, “environmental objective” means, for the purpose of assessing the environmental sustainability of an economic activity, the objectives of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change, sustainably using and protecting water and marine resources, transitioning to a circular economy, preventing and controlling pollution, and protecting and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems;

Regarding “Online Taxonomy Management System”, it means the online system through which the operations and procedures relating to the Taxonomy process will be conducted electronically.

Taxonomy-eligible activity refers to an economic activity falling within the scope of Annex 1.

Taxonomy-aligned activity refers to an eligible activity that satisfies the applicable technical screening criteria and the other alignment requirements prescribed by the Regulation.

Greenwashing refers to presenting a financial product, investment, activity or organisation as environmentally sustainable without sufficient and verifiable evidence.

Transition plan refers to the plan accompanying the taxonomy report and setting out the measures through which the reporting entity intends to improve its taxonomy alignment over time.

Scope of Turkey Green Taxonomy Regulation

Based on the additional documentation att