Author: Serkan Tilgen

Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK met with the entrepreneurs who reached the final stage of the U4VENTURE BiGG 2026-1 Acceleration Program, implemented under the TÜBİTAK BiGG 1812 Program and coordinated by ODTÜ TEKNOKENT in collaboration with Garaj X TEKMER and TEB Startup Banking and Startup Center.

The session explored the concepts of impact, impact investing and impact-driven entrepreneurship, as well as impact measurement and management and the alignment of ventures with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We would like to thank ODTÜ TEKNOKENT for this valuable invitation and wish all the entrepreneurs every success in the jury process! 🌍✨

Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK and Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK attended high-level meetings, forums and roundtables at London Climate Action Week 2026, sharing EYDK’s perspective on impact investing and climate finance with global stakeholders.

Key topics included:

🤝 Private sector engagement and international partnerships on the road to COP31
💰 Climate finance and private capital mobilisation
🌱 Adaptation and resilience investments
📈 Investable climate project pipelines
📊 Impact investing and innovative finance for climate action
🌍 The role of business in the global climate agenda

The week underlined once again that climate action requires not only public finance, but also private capital and strong multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Click to watch the reels video.

As part of London Climate Action Week 2026, EYDK participated in the “Türkiye Energy Transition Investment Forum”, hosted by the Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Bloomberg and Energy Shift Capital on 24 June.

Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK and Trustee of GSG Impact, joined the panel “Financing Türkiye’s Energy Transition: Where Capital Meets Opportunity”.

During the discussion, she highlighted that:

• Türkiye’s Renewable Energy 2035 Roadmap presents a significant opportunity for a resilient and competitive economy,
• The key challenge is not a lack of capital, but the need for investable and measurable project pipelines,
• Through its proposed Türkiye Climate Adaptation and Resilience Investment Coalition, EYDK aims to help transform adaptation and resilience needs into investment opportunities.

We participated in the COP31 Business Forum, hosted by the COP31 Private Sector Envoy, The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), as part of London Climate Action Week 2026.

Opening remarks by H.E. Murat Kurum, COP31 President and Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change of the Republic of Türkiye, and M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of TOBB, set the stage for a roundtable discussion bringing together representatives from the business community, international financial institutions and other key stakeholders.

During the discussion, Rt Hon Nick Hurd, Chair of GSG Impact, highlighted that the climate adaptation and resilience initiatives launched at COP30 by GSG Impact and its National Partners, in line with the Global Climate Action Agenda and the emerging COP31 Action Agenda, will continue to be strengthened throughout the COP31 process with the contribution of EYDK, GSG Impact Türkiye National Partner.

We remain committed to strengthening global partnerships for a sustainable and resilient future.

As EYDK, we were pleased to reconnect with our members at our second Members’ Meeting of 2026 to discuss the initiatives that will help advance Türkiye’s impact investing ecosystem. Alongside today’s agenda, we also exchanged views on our shared goals and the impact we can create together in the period ahead.

Our agenda included:

• Impact Accounting Pilot Programme in collaboration with GSG Impact
• European Impact Investing Market Sizing Study
• Global Climate Action Agenda (2026–2030) and COP31 processes
• Planned activities in the field of climate A&R within the COP31 framework
• Results of the “COP31 Collaboration Survey for Members”

As Türkiye prepares to host COP31, we remain committed to advancing our collective efforts to strengthen climate finance, adaptation investments, and the role of the private sector in climate action.

We would like to thank all our members for sharing this vision and for their valuable contributions and insights!

Zero Waste Forum 2026 | Road to Antalya: Zero Waste as Climate Action served as an important platform for dialogue and collaboration on climate action, circular economy, and multi-stakeholder partnerships on the road to COP31.

During the Forum (5–7 June) Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK met with COP30 High-Level Climate Champion Dan Ioschpe and COP30 and COP31 Climate Champions Teams to discuss climate finance and the role of the private sector in advancing climate action.

Meetings with representatives of the COP31 Climate Champion Team, Atlantic Council, and Global Resilience Hub also provided an opportunity to exchange views on adaptation and resilience investments, climate finance, and potential areas of collaboration aligned with the COP31 Action Agenda.

Through our work aligned with the Global Climate Action Agenda (2026–2030) shaped under COP30 and the COP31 Action Agenda, EYDK continues to support the translation of climate goals into concrete action and investment opportunities.

As the first event organised under the EYDK & TÜRMOB cooperation, we held our webinar titled “Accounting in the Impact Economy: Measurement, Reporting and Transformation”.

The webinar opened with remarks by İrfan Hüseyin Yıldız, President of TÜRMOB, and Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK.

Moderated by Özkan Cengiz, Board Member of TÜRMOB, the session brought together Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK, and Ceyda Özgün, Technical Committee Member of EYDK, to discuss the global and local outlook for impact investing and the impact economy, as well as impact measurement, management and reporting from different perspectives.

We would like to thank our speakers and all our stakeholders for their valuable contributions.

Watch the webinar recording on EYDK’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/P-hPBrP7-lU

On the second day of the Türkiye programme of Rt Hon Nick Hurd, Chair of GSG Impact, our engagements continued with the Zero Waste Foundation.

Rt Hon Nick Hurd, Chair of GSG Impact; Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK; and Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK, met with Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and COP31 High-Level Climate Champion, and his team.

The meeting focused on the potential contributions of GSG Impact and EYDK at both national and international levels in the COP31 process, particularly in relation to climate finance, private capital mobilisation and the development of investable project pipelines.

Drawing on GSG Impact’s global experience through its National Partners across different countries, the growing climate resilience finance agenda strengthened by international platforms, and EYDK’s ecosystem-convening role in Türkiye, the meeting explored concrete areas of collaboration from an impact investing perspective.

On 6–7 May, we held a series of high-level meetings in Istanbul with Rt Hon Nick Hurd, Chair of GSG Impact, focusing on impact investing and climate finance.

On the first day of the visit, Nick Hurd met with Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK; Tuğçe Söğüt, Secretary General of EYDK; Poyraz Koğacıoğlu, Executive Vice President of TSKB; and Özgür Temel, General Manager of Maxis.

The meeting focused on Türkiye’s impact investing ecosystem and financing instruments, with particular emphasis on the Türkiye Green Fund –a first-of-its-kind initiative in Türkiye and globally, financed through a loan.

Following the meetings, a dinner was held with the participation of representatives from İşbank, İş Asset, Maxis and Boğaziçi Ventures, together with the British Consul General to Istanbul. The discussion focused on how private capital can be mobilised for adaptation and resilience investments in the context of COP31.