ANALYSIS ·
Türkiye’s First Climate Law: The Legal Structure of Law No. 7552 and Its Consequences for Companies
Turkish Climate Law No. 7552 combines mitigation, adaptation, planning, emissions trading, permitting and supervision within a single framework. For companies, the central issue is not only emissions, but also how emissions data are generated, verified and governed.
Why the Law was enacted
The general rationale describes climate change as a global threat producing environmental, economic, social and legal consequences. Türkiye is considered particularly exposed because of its Mediterranean location, geographic characteristics and status as a developing country. Intensifying drought, food-security risks, extreme weather and disasters require a transition to a low-carbon economy, transformation of emissions-intensive sectors and stronger adaptation capacity. Türkiye’s participation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, together with its 2053 net-zero target, also underpin the need for a statutory framework. The Law is therefore not merely environmental legislation; it is an economic transformation law affecting production, energy, transport, finance, imports, exports and industrial policy.
Mitigation and adaptation: the Law’s two axes
The Law organises climate action around two axes: reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Emissions are to be reduced in line with the Nationally Determined Contribution, the net-zero target, and strategies and action plans issued by the Climate Change Presidency. Energy, water and raw-material efficiency, prevention of pollution at source, clean technology, carbon-footprint reduction and zero-waste practices are key instruments. Adaptation focuses on water resources, agriculture and food security, ecosystems, biodiversity, desertification, erosion, and early-warning and risk-management systems for climate-related disasters. Although duties are framed primarily through public authorities, the resulting measures will inevitably affect the activities of natural and legal persons directly.
Planning instruments and local climate action plans
Plans, programmes, strategies and other policy documents prepared by public bodies must take account of the green-growth vision and net-zero target. Each province must establish a Climate Change Coordination Board chaired by the governor. Local climate action plans must cover the entire province, reflect just-transition requirements and be completed by 31 December 2027; the deadline may be extended by up to one year. Because businesses may be required to provide information and data, these plans are not merely internal municipal documents. They may affect industrial facilities’ investment, capacity, energy use, waste management and emissions-reduction policies.
Emissions Trading System and greenhouse-gas emissions permit
The Emissions Trading System is the Law’s most important measure for companies. The Climate Change Presidency is to establish the system, prepare the national allocation plan and allocate allowances. Operators conducting covered activities that directly cause emissions must obtain a greenhouse-gas emissions permit to continue operating and surrender allowances corresponding to their verified annual emissions. Changes to a facility may require the permit to be updated or cancelled. A permit must be obtained within three years after the Law entered into force; during that period operators are deemed permitted on a one-off basis. The Carbon Market Board may extend the period by up to two years. A pilot phase will precede full implementation, with administrative fines for breaches reduced by eighty per cent during that phase.
Carbon border adjustment and foreign trade
The Law enables a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to manage embedded greenhouse-gas emissions in goods imported into the Turkish customs territory. The Ministry of Trade will determine its scope, reporting procedures and other rules. This allows Türkiye not only to align with the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism but also to establish its own carbon-based system of import control. Embedded emissions in imported raw materials and products may accordingly become an independent element of customs and trade compliance.
Administrative sanctions
The part headed “Penal Provisions” primarily establishes administrative, rather than criminal, sanctions; the heading is therefore technically misleading. The Law creates neither a new climate offence nor direct imprisonment or criminal fines. Failure to submit a verified emissions report on time attracts an administrative fine of TRY 500,000 to TRY 5,000,000, doubled for ETS operators. Operating without a permit and failing to surrender allowances are separately sanctioned. A substantial failure to meet obligations for three consecutive years may lead to cancellation of the permit and a temporary bar on a new permit. Failure to provide information, misleading statements and repeated breaches are also sanctioned; continued non-compliance may result in partial or complete suspension of operations.
Relationship between the Climate Law and criminal law
Law No. 7552 does not establish a standalone climate offence. Article 14(8), however, preserves the application of the Turkish Criminal Code and other statutes where conduct constitutes a criminal offence. Manipulating emissions data, preparing false verification documents, submitting misleading documents to a supervisory authority, entering false data into the system or concealing environmental harm may, depending on the facts, require separate examination under offences involving document forgery, fraud, misconduct in public office or environmental pollution. The same conduct may breach climate regulation and satisfy another offence. Yet administrative non-compliance does not create automatic criminal liability: every objective and subjective element of the relevant offence must be established separately for the individual concerned.
Consequences for companies and managers
Although the addressee of an administrative fine will often be an undertaking or legal person, natural persons within the organisation prepare, verify and submit data and surrender allowances. An effective control system must therefore connect technical, sustainability, legal and compliance functions, verification bodies and the final decision-maker. Delegation does not automatically eliminate managerial responsibility. Senior management must select suitable staff, provide sufficient resources, establish reporting systems and intervene when serious warning signs appear. Emissions data are no longer merely technical measurements; they are legal data affecting permits, allowances, market transactions, financing and sanctions. The core corporate risk therefore lies not only in excessive emissions, but also in how emissions information is generated, verified and governed internally.
The decisive role of secondary legislation
The Law creates a broad framework but relies heavily on secondary legislation. The sectors covered by the ETS, the permit system, allocation methods, verification requirements and market operation will be specified by regulations. Companies must therefore monitor not only the Law itself but also forthcoming regulations, board decisions and technical rules. The true scope of their legal duties will become clear through these supplementary instruments.
Assessment
The strongest feature of Law No. 7552 is that it gives climate policy a legal and institutional structure. Its weakest feature is that it leaves the substance of many core duties to later rules. The real test of legal certainty will begin with the enactment and application of secondary legislation. In climate law, the devil is not only in the detail; it is often in the regulation that has yet to be issued.