On 4 July 2026, a presidential circular published in the Official Gazette quietly set off a lasting shift in Türkiye’s financial system: the National Green Finance Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2029). At first glance the document reads like something aimed at banks and regulators. Look closer, though, and it carries a message that reaches manufacturing SMEs directly: loan applications will increasingly be assessed not just on balance sheets, but on a business’s energy and carbon data.
This article lays out what the circular introduces, which topics it covers, and what a manufacturing SME should start preparing today.
When and how the circular took effect
The strategy was brought into force through Presidential Circular No. 2026/8, published in Official Gazette No. 33300 dated 4 July 2026. It was coordinated by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, developed together with public institutions and private-sector representatives.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Circular no. | 2026/8 |
| Official Gazette date/no. | 4 July 2026 / 33300 |
| Issued by | Presidency of the Republic |
| Coordination | Ministry of Treasury and Finance |
| Legal basis | Climate Law No. 7552, Twelfth Development Plan (2024-2028), Medium-Term Programme (2026-2028), Green Deal Action Plan |
The full text is published on the Ministry of Treasury and Finance’s official site (hmb.gov.tr); for details that will directly affect your credit processes, treat the version there as the current reference.
Three objectives, eleven targets, forty-five actions
The strategy is built around three main objectives:
- Expand green financing sources — increase the variety of green products across banking, capital markets and insurance.
- Strengthen the financial sector’s resilience to climate risk — build climate risk into lending and investment decisions.
- Build an ecosystem that supports sustainable investment — link taxonomy, reporting and assurance infrastructure together.
Under these three objectives sit 11 targets and a total of 45 actions. Most of the actions bind banks and regulators — the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA), the Capital Markets Board (CMB) and the Public Oversight Authority (KGK) — but their consequences will land at the credit desk of every business that borrows from a bank.
What the strategy covers
The document gathers several topics that were already being discussed in the financial sector, but scattered across different tracks, under one roof:
- Green taxonomy — a shared framework defining which activities and investments count as “green.” Banks will classify lending according to this framework.
- Green asset ratio — the share of a bank’s loan portfolio that matches the green taxonomy. This is becoming a metric BRSA requests from banks periodically.
- Sustainability reporting and assurance — companies’ sustainability reports being subject to independent assurance audits.
- Financed emissions — banks calculating the emissions of the companies they lend to as part of their own portfolio emissions (GHG Protocol Scope 3, Category 15).
- Climate risk stress tests — banks testing their loan portfolios against climate scenarios.
- Emissions trading system — aligning financial instruments with the system established under Climate Law No. 7552.
- Preventing greenwashing — mechanisms to check that “green”-labelled products and reports actually deliver what they claim.
What ties these topics together is that all of them demand measurable, verifiable data. A statement of intent or a general commitment is no longer enough.
What changes on the banking side
Once indicators like the green asset ratio and financed emissions become part of banks’ regular reporting, banks need to source that data from somewhere — and that somewhere is the borrowing company itself. A production facility’s energy consumption, output volume and, where available, carbon footprint become an input into the bank’s own portfolio reporting.
In practical terms, this means more data requests during loan applications, restructuring, or limit increases in the period ahead. The fact that such a request hasn’t landed yet doesn’t mean it won’t; the strategy sets out a four-year implementation timeline (2026-2029), and BRSA’s climate risk guidance for banks is taking shape along the same timeline.
The practical takeaway for SMEs
For a manufacturing SME, the circular carries no direct obligation — its addressees are banks and regulators. But its indirect effect will be felt at the credit desk. Three concrete consequences stand out:
- A business with data readiness starts ahead at the credit table. A firm that already holds energy consumption, production data and, ideally, a carbon footprint (Scope 1-3) can answer a bank’s green taxonomy or green-asset-ratio questions immediately.
- The same data infrastructure serves CBAM and CSRD. SMEs that export to the EU or supply large CSRD-scoped companies and already collect emissions data will find that investment pays off on the domestic financing side too — one measurement infrastructure feeding two fronts at once.
- Claims behind a “green loan” label will be scrutinised more closely. The anti-greenwashing focus means that green credit or incentive advantages based on claims alone will become harder to obtain; real measurement and verification will be required.
What these three points share is that the strategy puts data, not banks, at the centre of the system. For a business without data infrastructure, that’s a risk of arriving late to an application; for one that already has it, it’s a competitive edge.
One more point is worth underlining: the strategy targets the financial system as a whole, not just large industrial groups. Its effect will be felt across the full range of lending, from small trade credit to investment loans, regardless of size. For an SME, this isn’t a development to dismiss as “someone else’s concern” — sooner or later, it reaches the agenda of nearly every business with a banking relationship.
Preparing: measure, transform, sustain
In practice, preparation moves through three steps:
- Measure — Collect energy and production data from the field (meters, sensors, machine-to-machine communication) on a regular basis. Where a carbon footprint is needed, calculate it using the GHG Protocol / ISO 14064 method.
- Transform — Move data out of scattered spreadsheets into a single source of truth; make reporting repeatable through ERP systems and process automation.
- Sustain — Turn your sustainability report and bank/credit application file into something your systems can generate and update, rather than rebuild each time.
On the green transition side, this chain takes concrete shape through sustainability reporting — from data collection to an assurance-ready report. İkiz Eksen carries Qera’s track record of 550+ clients and 100+ ERP projects into a measure-transform-sustain chain running on Microsoft Azure infrastructure, delivering projects turnkey across Türkiye.
If you’d like to clarify where this strategy will touch your business, get in touch — we can assess your current data infrastructure together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the National Green Finance Strategy bind SMEs directly?
No, the circular’s direct addressees are banks and regulators (BRSA, CMB, KGK). Its effect on SMEs is indirect: banks will need data from the companies they lend to in order to report indicators like the green asset ratio and financed emissions.
When will this reach lending processes?
The implementation timeline runs through 2026-2029, with 45 actions rolling out on different dates. An exact “data will be requested from this date” calendar isn’t publicly available yet — confirm the current status with your bank or advisor.
What’s the difference between green taxonomy and CBAM/CSRD?
CBAM and CSRD are EU-originated regulations targeting exports and large companies’ supply chains. Green taxonomy is Türkiye’s own classification framework for its financial system. Both ask for the same kind of data — energy, emissions, production — so a single measurement infrastructure can serve both.
I have no measurement data yet — where should I start?
Start with a basic data collection line for your largest energy and production items (meter readings, invoice records, output volumes). Carbon footprint calculation and reporting won’t produce reliable results without this baseline first.
Can I rely on the figures in this article?
This article is compiled from the circular’s official announcement and secondary sources (Ministry of Treasury and Finance, related circulars and news coverage); it is for informational purposes. For binding decisions on your credit or reporting processes, confirm the current text with your bank or via hmb.gov.tr.