Turkey Launches Carbon Market Training — Green Finance Gets Serious
This is not a symbolic move. Turkey is under mounting pressure from the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which began its transitional phase in 2023 and will fully apply tariffs on carbon-intensive Turkish exports — steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizer — starting 2026. Without a functioning domestic carbon price, Turkish exporters will effectively pay a carbon tax to Brussels instead of Ankara. That is money leaving the country.
The training program signals that the government is accelerating the timeline to make the emissions market operational before CBAM bites hard. For businesses in heavy industry, this is no longer a distant regulatory concern — it is a balance sheet issue. Companies that understand carbon pricing early will be able to hedge costs, optimize production, and potentially trade allowances for profit. Those that ignore it will absorb the hit directly.
💬 Levent KAYIRA Commentary
Ekonomik Gündem Analysis: From my years managing fixed-income and structured portfolios at Garanti and Denizbank, I watched Turkey repeatedly miss windows on financial market infrastructure — and pay for it later. The carbon market is different. This time the external deadline is fixed: CBAM starts charging in 2026, and Turkish steel alone exports roughly $4–5 billion annually to the EU. Even a €50/ton carbon price translates into hundreds of millions in potential border tariffs if Turkey lacks a credible domestic carbon pricing mechanism.
EPİAŞ already runs Turkey’s electricity and gas markets with reasonable efficiency, so the institutional backbone exists. The training program is the pre-market warm-up — getting traders, compliance officers, and CFOs fluent in allowance mechanics before the actual market opens. Smart move.
For Turkish investors, this opens a new asset class. Carbon allowances in the EU (EUAs) now trade above €60/ton and have been as high as €100. A liquid Turkish carbon market creates hedging instruments for energy-intensive companies and potentially new revenue streams for renewable energy producers who can generate and sell credits.
Watch which brokerage houses and banks move fastest to build carbon trading desks. That is where the first-mover advantage in Turkish green finance will be captured.
Kaynak: Google News Ekonomi