One of the important topics on the agenda at the UN Climate Change Conference COP31, held in Antalya, where the heart of the whole world beats, was the financing of green transformation. Within the scope of the conference that will continue until November 20, the importance of green transformation and access to finance for businesses in this context were discussed in the Green Transformation Financing Panel, organized by Turkuvaz Media and broadcast on A Para screens, and moderated by A Para News Deputy Director Uğur Korkmaz.
Ziraat Bank Sustainability Head Berrin Mahmutoğlu, Halkbank Deputy General Manager Murat Yıldırım and Vakıfbank Strategy, Vakıfbank Product Development and Corporate Development Group Head Sibel Sağman attended the panel, where the importance of Green Financing for institutions and the supports provided in this regard were discussed. Participants stated that in this period when the rules of global trade are being rewritten, the transformation of SMEs, which constitute the backbone of the economy, is essential in order to maintain their existence, and gave the message: "As public banks, we offer every possible contribution to the transformation of our SMEs, as well as large corporate companies. Our support will continue to increase from now on."
Touching on the importance of SMEs for the Turkish economy in his speech, Ziraat Bank Sustainability President Berrin Mahmutoğlu said, "We are a large market; as the 16th largest economy, more than 40 percent of our market is in Europe. Therefore, we are faced with the issue of Border Carbon Regulation, which has become valid since the beginning of this year. Therefore, transformation is now inevitable." Saying that this situation triggers economic and social events, Mahmutoğlu drew attention to the importance of electrification in this context. We need an investment of 300 billion dollars to transform energy. There are also investments that are essential for us on the industrial side. We need to implement these resources by bringing them together with the right projects. As a bank, we have special packages regarding transformation. We have a Border Carbon Reduction Package for our exporters, which we issued 2 years ago. We predicted that companies would reduce their carbon emissions by 20 percent. Not only corporate companies but also SMEs must be transformed. We issued the Green Export Credit for them. We signed a big package yesterday. We announced a big package for OIZs and the companies within them. We mediate the transformation of institutions as much as possible.
"We used 2.9 billion dollars of sustainability-related syndication this year," said Mahmutoğlu, adding that they will sign new sustainability-related resources worth 2 billion dollars at COP31. Explaining that energy investments and food supply are of great importance in this process, Mahmutoğlu said, "Agriculture is the strongest muscle of Ziraat Bank. We are together with more than 1 million farmers, we have a loan size exceeding 1 trillion TL. We are a bank with 70% of the market. Good agricultural practices and organic agriculture will gain greater importance in the coming period. We have set a target to reduce the emission intensity in wheat, corn and rice."
Stating that the rules of global trade in production and competition have been rewritten, Yıldırım continued: "Nowadays, your company's situation is much more valuable in terms of how efficiently you use your resources, the damage you cause to the environment while producing, and sustainability, rather than how much you produce. These features are carefully followed by businesses. In this sense, green transformation is of great interest to SMEs. We have serious resources at our disposal in terms of access to finance."
Stating that COP31 created a serious awareness in SMEs about green transformation and sustainability, Halkbank Deputy General Manager Murat Yıldırım said, "Here, SMEs asked us about our resources regarding green transformation. Access to finance and spreading the transformation of SMEs, which are the building blocks of production and employment, to the grassroots is an important task for us, public banks. The transformation of SMEs, which are in the supply chain of large enterprises, is very essential. All sectors should be widely included in the process. We act with this awareness. In this context, its size is "We have made available the Sustainability Transformation Package, which is approximately 100 billion TL, to our customers. This is a loan package with which we can finance all investments in terms of sustainability. We have identified the needs of businesses under 31 headings," he said.
Stating that they have started a new era in which development-oriented value banking prevails, Vakıfbank Product Development and Corporate Development Group President Sibel Sağman stated that they have launched the Future Value Package in this context. Stating that it is not possible for classical financing to be fully sufficient in this transformation, Sağman said: "The partnerships we have established on the development and investment side are very important in this sense. We have provided a total of 9 billion dollars of resources from abroad this year. We will use 7 billion dollars of this within the scope of sustainability. We signed new agreements worth 1.7 billion dollars at COP31. These are special resources given to banks for specific areas, with maturities of up to 20 years. Again, from our own resources, with the guarantee of KGF and HDI." "We announced 50 billion lira Value for the Future financing models. We announced a new package that includes many areas. As Vakıfbank, we are diversifying our financing models. We believe that we will add value to the future." Stating that they also provide consultancy support to companies regarding transformation, Sağman said, "This transformation is very important for companies. We stand by companies to make a difference in the race."
