Dusch: We believe that committing to SFDR Article 8 is strong in the current understanding and application of the regulation. We documented it in our funds’ placement memorandums, which comprise meeting key United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. For each asset, we also measure CO₂ emissions avoided and the classification against the 2050 global warming reduction targets. Social impact is a big one. Infrastructure development and operation creates jobs.
Back to digital infrastructure, we have seen that it contributes positively to social well-being. We can argue that data centres can be sustainable as technologies limiting the heat they gen- erate is available. One can also build the social infrastructure around them using sustainable materials, while the data centre can be fed by renewable energy. This part of the sustainability challenge. Whistler: In the end, it’s how everything fits together in a sys- tem. It is easy to look at one asset in isolation and say it is sus- tainable, but everything is the sum of its parts. Dusch: We are a believer of the interconnectivity of infrastruc- ture. Countries need to build a comprehensive set of infra-
structure to provide the services society needs. Then you can look at an asset from its integration into a sustainable global infrastructure.
Is there much difference in regulation when investing in Europe compared to the UK? Dusch: It depends on what you are talking about. SFDR is one regulation with a different interpretation from one EU country to another. There are so many ways, for example, to look at feed-in tariffs. In Europe it is a tall order because there are dif- ferent ways for governments to tender concession agreements – the PPP scheme in France, the availability scheme in Germany or private finance initiative in the UK are all proven but different to one another. You have to be humble in analysing regulation, seeing what aspects
are important to deliver on the mandate from
investors. We read that the UK is considering implementing a similar directive to the EU’s SFDR and taxonomy. It will be interesting to see if the scheme that is implemented addresses some of the concerns around interpretation of the EU regulation.
December – January 2023 portfolio institutional roundtable: Infrastructure 21
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