Climate related financial disclosures: The Case of commercial banks in Türkiye

This thesis evaluates climate-related financial disclosures of the banking sector in Türkiye in line with the recent developments in sustainability reporting standards. Our thesis is the first study to score banks' climate change reports in Türkiye using the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) criteria. Climate change poses significant risks and opportunities in the financial sector, and the scoring measures banks' awareness of this issue. The scoring is done manually using 2021 and 2023 data from 10 commercial banks. The findings are compared with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) scores and banks' financial indicators. The scoring made with TCFD criteria is observed to have a strong and positive correlation with CDP scores. We also examine whether banks' capacity to manage climate change risks plays a decisive role on financial performance indicators. A positive but weak relationship is found between the calculated TCFD scores and the banks' financial performance indicators.