The 2022 Turkey results of CDP, the world’s biggest environmental reporting platform, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum has been the partner in Turkey, were announced at the 13th Climate Change Conference and Award Ceremony on Tuesday, April 25, 2023.
“Climate Change & Water Program 2022 Turkey Results Report” includes the analyses and findings of CDP Turkey, carrying out its Turkey operations under the main sponsorship of Garanti BBVA, for the year 2022. The CDP Global and CDP Turkey Leaders determined according to the CDP's Global Rating Methodology were announced during the event.
According to the results announced, 95% of companies reporting in Turkey identify climate-related risks and point out that these risks have the potential to have a significant financial or strategic impact on their businesses. 96% of companies have identified potential climate-related opportunities; however, the total amount of climate-related risks identified (576) is almost 3 times the amount of reported opportunities (208).
According to the reports made through the CDP in Turkey, the potential financial impact of climate risks is much greater than the cost required to respond to these risks. In 2022, while the total financial impact of the risks identified by companies in our country is around 24 billion dollars (9 times), companies reported that 2.6 billion dollars is required to take precautions against these risks. The most reported risk factor by companies in Turkey was carbon pricing mechanisms.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EVOLUTION OF SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
This year, the CDP conference was held with the theme of "The Evolution of Climate Reporting: From Voluntary Reporting to Mandatory Reporting". At the conference, the issue of mandatory sustainability reporting, which has started to become widespread all over the world and is planned to be implemented more effectively in Turkey, was discussed. CDP, which has been providing companies with a platform where they can make voluntary reporting for years, has expanded its aim and revealed that it will continue to support companies in mandatory reporting.
Making the opening speech of the conference, Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, Garanti BBVA Executive Vice President, said, “With the 2022 results, we once again witnessed the growing influence of CDP Turkey, with which we have been collaborating for many years. As Garanti BBVA, we have been reporting transparently to the CDP Climate Change Program since 2009 and to the CDP Water Program since 2015”.
Mardi McBrien, Strategy Director of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation / ISSB, one of the keynote speakers of the conference, touched upon the efforts carried out within the scope of sustainability reporting all over the world and new practices that will be implemented in the near future. McBrien made the following comments in her speech: “At ISSB, our role is to develop standards to provide a global basis for sustainability reporting. We want investors around the world to have high-quality information about the sustainability risks and opportunities affecting companies and the risks to be comparable around the world. In addition to finalizing the standards, we work to ensure, strengthen and improve the adoption and implementation of these standards. We believe that a global reporting standard has the potential to improve knowledge, particularly in emerging economies, thereby increasing financing for necessary investments, and therefore we believe it is important to work closely with regional standard setters and relevant local stakeholders”.
Murat Yünlü, Vice Chair of Turkish Public Oversight, Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority, the other keynote speaker of the conference, talked about the development of the matter in Turkey and his future projections. In his speech, Yünlü said, “Companies can become businesses that carry out their operations more responsibly and sensitively to the world and society, only by making sustainability disclosures with the same rigor, quality and global comparability as financial information disclosures. In this direction, our Institution will take qualified steps on sustainability by determining and publishing the Turkish Sustainability Reporting Standards, determining the scope of implementation, authorizing the auditors to undertake assurance audits, and overseeing the said audits in order to ensure uniformity in practice and international validity of reports on sustainability”.
TARGETS SET BY THE PARIS AGREEMENT ARE ON THE AGENDA OF COMPANIES IN TURKEY
Announcing the results of the CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2022 Turkey Report, Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum / CDP Turkey Projects Manager Mirhan Köroğlu Göğüş stated that there has been a significant increase in the number of companies in Turkey that set their emission reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement. She added, “In 2022, 29 companies in Turkey set Science Based Targets (SBT). Eight of these have targets approved by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). This number was only 1 in 2020.”
Stating that there has been an increase in the number of companies that set longer-term targets covering 2030 and beyond in Turkey, Göğüş added that this development is of great importance in reaching the targets of the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Göğüş continued, “The targets set in our country are becoming more and more ambitious in terms of the timeframe they cover. The percentage of companies that set absolute emission reduction targets for 2030 and beyond has nearly quadrupled in the last two years. This change shows that in recent years, more companies have grasped the urgency of tackling climate change and have set more ambitious targets for this purpose”.
“FROM VOLUNTARY REPORTING TO MANDATORY REPORTING” PANEL
Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum Director Ata Can Bertay moderated the panel entitled “The Evolution of Climate Reporting: From Voluntary Reporting to Mandatory Reporting” organized as part of the conference. The panel was attended by Ji Yeon Kim, CDP’s Senior Manager of Corporate Relations, Simon C.Y. Wong, Advisory Board Member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Tomasz Gasinski, Deloitte Central Europe Sustainability Services Director.
At the panel, Ji Yeon Kim talked about the contribution of CDP to preparing companies for the transition to mandatory sustainability reporting and how the sustainability reporting obligations, which will begin to become a standard in the coming period, will be integrated into the CDP question sets. While Simon C.Y. Wong focused on how companies should follow a management strategy in the face of mandatory climate reporting and possible legal responsibilities, Tomasz Gasinski gave information on the possible effects of regulatory reporting on companies and how companies that are already reporting voluntarily can benefit from it.
AWARD CEREMONY
The number of companies from Turkey that have succeeded in entering the Global A-list has reached the highest level ever this year. From all over the world, 4 of the 297 Global A companies that received an ‘A’ score within the scope of the Climate Change Program and 6 of the 107 Global A-list companies within the scope of the Water Security Program are from Turkey. A total of 9 companies from Turkey, including Aydem Yenilenebilir Enerji, Arçelik, Brisa, Carrefoursa, Garanti BBVA, Kordsa, Mavi Giyim, Tekfen, T. Halk Bankası entered the Global A-list, ranking among the world leaders. Aydem Yenilenebilir Enerji managed to be on the A-list within the scope of both the Water Security and Climate Change Programs.
21 companies from Turkey received an ‘A-’ score in the Climate Change and Water Security Programs and were ranked in the Turkey Leaders category. This year, for the first time, a record number (18) of companies were among the Supplier Engagement Rating (SER) leaders by getting an ‘A’ score in the CDP SER category.
Delivering the opening speech of the award ceremony, CDP Turkey Director Melsa Ararat pointed to the increase in the number of leading companies and said, “Global financial institutions widely use CDP's ratings in making investment decisions that support a sustainable and resilient economy. We are very pleased that portfolio management companies in Turkey have started to rely on CDP ratings when establishing mutual funds based on investment grade indices. CDP Turkey will continue to be a channel that adapts CDP's global thought leadership to the realities of Turkey's institutional structure”.
After a video showing the messages of the CEOs of the companies that had become the CDP Global A Leaders, all companies were presented with their awards. This year, the CDP Turkey awards were produced with a 3D printer and completely biodegradable material.