Turkey's Climate Change Presidency published the Procedures and Principles for the Turkish Emissions Trading System (TR ETS) pilot implementation period on October 1, 2026, via Olur (administrative approval) No. 18626 dated September 30, 2026. The instrument, issued under Climate Law No. 7552 and the TR ETS Management Regulation of August 27, 2026 (Official Gazette 33353), turns the Carbon Market Board's KPK/2026/1 decisions of January 15, 2026 into binding operating rules for the 2026-2027 pilot.
Covered Turkish electricity, cement, iron and steel, aluminum and fertilizer operators above the TR ETS emission threshold must complete activity-level emissions reporting and verification for the 2026 system year, with the first allowance surrender for 2027 system year emissions, and determine their sub-installations and benchmark free allocations before that surrender, or face penalties under the TR ETS Management Regulation and Climate Law No. 7552. In the 2026 system year only reporting duties apply; the surrender obligation starts with 2027 emissions.
What the pilot procedures add to the TR ETS framework
The Procedures and Principles (Usul ve Esaslar) are the first operational rulebook for the TR ETS pilot, announced by the Climate Change Presidency on October 1, 2026. The TR ETS Management Regulation entered into force on August 27, 2026 (Official Gazette 33353), fixing the system's legal backbone; the Procedures and the adopting Olur 18626 fill in how the pilot actually runs. The text sets the scope, duration and operating mechanics, and governs four technical building blocks that covered installations must implement: the determination of sub-installations, the calculation of benchmark values, the determination of free allocations, and activity-level emissions reporting and verification.
The pilot covers 2026 and 2027 system year greenhouse gas emissions. The TR ETS uses an intensity-based cap with benchmark free allocation, a design distinct from the EU ETS absolute-cap model; the first full application period runs from 2028 to 2035. Turkey is not an EU member state and the TR ETS is a national regime, not an EU ETS extension, though Turkish exporters to the EU remain separately subject to the EU CBAM through their EU importers.
Who is covered by the TR ETS pilot
Installations in five sectors fall in scope: electricity generation, cement, iron and steel, aluminum, and fertilizer. Operators above the TR ETS emission threshold, which the Carbon Market Board set above 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, must participate. The scope follows market exposure inside Turkey: domestic generators and industrial emitters in these five sectors that exceed the threshold, not exporters to Turkey or upstream chemical suppliers that stay below it.
What covered operators must do and when
The pilot splits obligations across two system years. For the 2026 system year, operators carry only reporting duties: activity-level emissions reporting and third-party verification. For the 2027 system year, the allowance surrender obligation begins for the first time. Before surrender starts, operators must determine their sub-installations and benchmark free allocations, which set how many allowances each installation receives without payment.
| Step | Date | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon Market Board decisions (KPK/2026/1) | January 15, 2026 | Pilot scope and design adopted |
| TR ETS Management Regulation in force | August 27, 2026 (OG 33353) | System legal backbone established |
| Pilot Procedures and Principles (Olur 18626) | September 30, 2026 | Operating rules published |
| 2026 system year | Reporting only | Activity-level reporting and verification |
| 2027 system year | First allowance surrender | Surrender obligation begins |
What happens if operators do not comply
Non-compliance with the reporting and allowance surrender duties triggers penalties under the TR ETS Management Regulation (Official Gazette 33353) and Climate Law No. 7552. The Climate Law is the enabling statute for the ETS and the net-zero roadmap; the Management Regulation fixes the penalty regime for missed reporting and surrender obligations. Continuous, per-jurisdiction monitoring surfaces a rule like this the moment it publishes, before it reaches the trade press.
Operators in the five covered sectors should confirm whether their emissions exceed the 50,000 tCO2/yr threshold, map their installations to the sub-installation categories the Procedures define, and stand up activity-level measurement, reporting and verification processes for the 2026 system year reporting cycle. Compliance and carbon management teams should track the free allocation benchmarks and the 2027 surrender mechanics as the supporting guidance lands.
