The World Bank’s private sector financing arm – the International Finance Corporation – will invest $100m in Turkish lender QNB Türkiye’s climate transition bond. The transaction marks the IFC’s inaugural transition bond investment.
The five-year bond is a use-of-proceeds (UoP) instrument. In addition to targeting ‘low-carbon and resilient’ investments, a minimum of 50% of the funds are earmarked for investments in Türkiye’s hard-to-abate sectors.
“IFC’s first-ever global investment in a climate transition bond through this transaction marks a significant milestone for transition finance and reflects strong international confidence in Türkiye’s potential for sustainable transformation”, commented QNB Türkiye’s chief executive Ömür Tan.
Tan says the bond will enable the bank to support ‘science-aligned pathways’ in hard-to-abate sectors. The IFC, on its part, is hoping to crowd in private investment in these pathways by backing QNB’s bond.
“This landmark investment helps prove that economy-wide transformation requires bringing heavy industry along, industries critical to improving energy efficiency and driving job creation”, said Momina Aijazuddin, IFC’s regional industry head, financial institutions group for the Middle East and Central Asia.
The five-year bond’s use-of-proceeds will align with the ICMA climate transition bond guidelines, issued in November 2025. The IFC, which participates in ICMA’s transition finance working group, also contributed to developing these standards.
The bond marks another milestone in IFC’s partnership with QNB Türkiye. In October last year, the IFC supported a blue bond issued by the lender.
In a statement, the IFC said its investment also aligns with the country’s industrial decarbonisation policies, that identify priority technologies in sectors such as cement, fertilizers, aluminium, iron and steel.
“By investing in a first-of-its-kind issuance, we aim to crowd in private capital to credible, science-based decarbonization plans and accelerate Türkiye’s path to net-zero by 2053”, Aijazuddin added.
