Insights from Ropes & Gray real estate investments and transactions partner David Kaye were recently featured in an article, “Setting the Pace on ESG Standards,” published in PERE Magazine’s ESG Special Report.
David discussed how the lack of guidance from the government means there is no agreed-upon standard for measuring progress on ESG: “Part of the problem is that there is no single benchmark that any sponsor can look to, which creates confusion in the market,” he said. “So I think that any type of regulation, however specific, would actually help [private equity fund] sponsors be able to understand the extent of their disclosures and the substance of what actually needs to be disclosed.”
Regarding the inconsistent and conflicting rules in different U.S. states, attorney Annise Maguire highlighted that this is causing a “piecemeal regulatory environment where it's not only a lack of consistency, but where regulations are directly conflicting. So it puts [asset] managers and firms in a really hard position because if they have a broad reach, they actually can't take a consistent approach,” she said. “By having a more consistent, single, federal standard, you get rid of these sorts of conflicts.”
The full PERE ESG Special Report is available online to subscribeMrs here.
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