Category: Announcements

An Impact Economy Perspective for COP31

The COP31 Consultation Meeting held on 26 February 2026 provided an important opportunity to rethink Türkiye’s climate action through the lens of financing architecture.

As EYDK, we brought an impact economy perspective to the thematic sessions on Implementation Tools: Climate Finance, Technology and Capacity Building, Climate Change Adaptation, Youth and Climate Ambassadors. 🌱

During the meeting, as the National Partner of GSG Impact, we shared how EYDK can serve as a bridge by integrating global experience in ecosystem building and capital mobilisation–developed across different countries–with our work in Türkiye. 🌐

We consider it critical to strengthen the financing dimension of the climate agenda within the COP31 process and to advance outcome-based, accountable impact investing instruments.

The success of climate action depends on mobilising the right capital with the right instruments–and on ensuring that young people are actively integrated into decision-making processes. ♻️

📍Chair of EYDK and Trustee of GSG Impact Şafak Müderrisgil met with Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Türkiye.

During the meeting held on 25 February, discussions focused on the impact economy, which is gaining momentum globally and in Türkiye and becoming increasingly embedded in mainstream markets, as well as on potential areas of collaboration and future projects. The role of impact investing and impact-oriented policy tools in strengthening the alignment between development and industrial policies was also explored.

We believe that for the impact economy to deliver meaningful results, it must gain traction not only within the private sector but also across public policy, enabling more strategic use of resources and progress toward sustainable development goals.

We thank the Minister for his kind hospitality and valuable insights.

Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK and Trustee of GSG Impact, convened with Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and COP31 High-Level Champion, for a strategic consultation on the evolving priorities of COP31.

As Türkiye prepares to host COP31, discussions focused on aligning global climate ambitions with actionable national pathways. EYDK and GSG Impact’s institutional experience from previous COP processes was shared, highlighting mechanisms that translate climate commitments into investment-ready opportunities.

The dialogue explored policy frameworks capable of generating measurable impact, strengthening climate action, advancing sustainable development, and fostering impact-driven partnerships across sectors.

At EYDK, we regard multi-stakeholder engagement as fundamental to climate-focused transformation and position impact investing as a strategic lever to mobilize private capital at scale.

Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK and Trustee of GSG Impact held a meeting with Burak Dağlıoğlu, President of the Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye.

During the meeting, priorities for 2026, strategic directions, and potential areas of collaboration were discussed. Since 2019, the Presidency Investment and Finance Office has played an active role in shaping Türkiye’s impact investing ecosystem supporting the implementation of related policies and practices, and aligning impact investment activities in Türkiye with international investors.

On 4 December 2025, the EYDK V. Members’ Meeting was convened in Istanbul, hosted by Enerjisa Enerji. The meeting provided a valuable platform to review the achievements of the past year and to jointly refine our strategic roadmap for 2026..

The session commenced with opening remarks by Şafak Müderrisgil, EYDK Chair and Ebru Taşçıoğlu, Head of Sustainability and Corporate Capabilities at Enerjisa Enerji.

📌 Gülşah Günay, Head of the Sustainability Standards Department at POA, shared insights on the current state of sustainability reporting in Türkiye and the next steps ahead.

The session continued with:
🔹 Reflections from our Technical Committee members,
🔹 Highlights from the Impact Network Analysis,
🔹 Preparations for EYDK’s 5th anniversary.

The shared message was clear: advancing impact investing requires strong institutional capacity, common standards, and transparency.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all EYDK members for their contributions, and to Enerjisa Enerji for their warm hospitality.

Building on the outcomes of our summer initiatives in the impact investing ecosystem and the insights gained from international gatherings, we came together with our members for the fourth meeting of the year. In this session, we both reflected on the past months and discussed our strategic steps for the upcoming period.

📌 Highlights from the Meeting:

🔹 The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4),
🔹 The 2025 Sustainability Standards Conference,
🔹 Key insights from the Social Outcomes Conference 2025.

➡️ We also introduced a new initiative to our members: the EYDK Network Analysis. Through this work, we aim to make the connections within our ecosystem more visible and strengthen areas of collaboration.

🌍 EYDK continues to lead the development of impact investing in Türkiye while contributing to the transformation of the global financial system.

At our Embassy in London, the members of the GSG Impact Board of Trustees and Şafak Müderrisgil, Chair of EYDK, convened with Ersoy Erkazancı and Enes Güzel, United Kingdom advisors of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Investment and Finance Office, under the auspices of Türkiye’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Osman Koray Ertaş.

The meeting focused on opportunities to strengthen collaboration between Türkiye and the United Kingdom in the fields of impact investing and the impact economy. This dialogue laid an important foundation for joint projects and new partnership opportunities.

Following the very first SDG Impact Standards Training we designed exclusively for a single institution, this time we came together at the “Impact Stories” webinar.

 In this session, we explored:

• Examples of impact and impact investing,
• The roadmap offered by the SDG Impact Standards for institutions,
• New opportunities arising from the Sevilla Commitment and the Global Financing Playbook.

We extend our gratitude to the AON Türkiye team for their pioneering approach to integrating impact into corporate culture.