Policy Issues

Read LETTER

Eleven national real estate industry trade groups, including The Real Estate Roundtable, submitted a joint letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 13, 2022 on a proposed rule that would require all registered companies to disclose material financial risks related to climate change.

Many of the 11 organizations submitted additional letters on behalf of our individual organizations, but share common themes and recommendations across the real estate industry that include the recommendations below:

• Delaying most of the proposed compliance deadlines by at least a year. And given the complexities related to the calculation of Scope 3 emissions in particular, if this disclosure remains a requirement in the final rule, the related compliance deadline should be extended by at least two years;
  
  
• Abandoning the 1% line item disclosure thresholds in favor of the SEC’s own recent Regulation S-K reforms for “materiality-focused” and “principles-based” discussions in Form 10-K’s MD&A;
  
  

• Allowing the incorporation of “actual, determined” Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data in the first filing for which they are available;

• Limiting mandatory Scope 3 disclosure and allowing registrants to furnish rather than file Scope 3 emissions data; and

• Strengthening the proposed Scope 3 safe harbor and extending these safe harbor protections to Scope 2 disclosures as well.

See a summary of The Roundtable's June 10 comments to the SEC here.

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