The SEC’s latest climate change forecast has confirmed 10,000 angry comments from real estate agencies across the United States. Organizations and companies such as Real Estate Roundtable, CRE Finance Council, JLL, Prologis, and Nareit are not particularly happy.
The SEC initially drafted its own climate change law back in March in an effort to link US law with international standards to prevent future climate catastrophes. The new law mandates that individual companies be held accountable for reporting the amount of emissions generated by buildings and their employers. While the SEC intends to make it more transparent, collecting such information is a daunting task, and forcing companies to do so by the end of this year is causing a huge setback as similar selection programs have and a three-year timetable. Moreover, the rules regarding regulations are very wrong. Another reprimand issued by the National Vendors Association speaks to the fact that current production guidelines fail to determine whether publicly traded companies should take gas for their independent contracts.
While many considerations will be considered as the SEC continues to finalize its weather forecast, investors continue to be concerned with clarity and risk-related risk factors, in particular. while European countries adopted more laws before that. The current conflict between the SEC and US real estate companies reflects the growing pain that the real estate market is experiencing when it comes to decarbonization.
