Thank you very much for taking the time to review the 1st draft of the Private Equity Sector SBT Guidance and provide feedback on the following consultation questions. Please review the survey and the draft guidance in conjunction. Key areas for consultation are highlighted in grey in the draft guidance, for which survey questions are included below. It will take approximately 90 minutes to finish reading the draft and completing the survey (this does not consider time for road testing).

The last section in this survey is primarily for road testing private equity firms or their supporting consultants to provide feedback on clarity and practicality of the guidance. Other interested stakeholders are welcome to respond to these questions wherever relevant. Otherwise please simply enter NA to skip this section.

Please submit your response to this survey by Sep 15th. This would allow sufficient time to incorporate your feedback to launch the 2nd draft at COP this year.
Road testers may have till Sep 30th to complete the survey. We cannot guarantee that any feedback received beyond end of September will be properly considered. Thanks in advance for your time and valuable feedback!

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* 1. Primary contact

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* 2. Headquarter country

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* 3. Please select all options that best represent your institution type (checkboxes)

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* 4. Is your firm a General Partner (GP) or a Limited Partner (LP)? (multiple choice)

 
 
 
 
 
Questions on Table 9.1. Asset Class Required Activities and Methods

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* 5. Regarding “PE direct investments beyond electricity generation and real estate”, the current target boundary requirements presented in this draft reflects where PE firms have more influence to engage PCs and maturity of PCs. In practice, if certain PE direct investments are required to be included in the target boundary, it means they need to be included in the denominator to calculate “SBT coverage” in the SBT Portfolio coverage method.

Do you agree that these target setting requirements are sufficiently ambitious and credible?

  Agree Partially agree Disagree
Required: Buyouts ≥ 30% of the fully diluted shares of the PC AND board seat(s)
Required: Growth capital ≥ 20% of the fully diluted shares of the PC AND board seat(s)
Optional: Other minority shares in leveraged buyouts and growth equity investments
Optional: Venture capital

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* 6. Do you think that we should provide a quantitative definition (e.g. revenue threshold) for buyout, growth capital, and venture capital to distinguish portfolio companies in these strategies from each other?

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* 7. Presently, not all PE direct investments beyond electricity generation and real estate are required as presented in the draft guidance. Do you think that SBTi should require all PE direct investments to be included in the denominator to calculate “%SBT coverage” in the SBT Portfolio coverage method, regardless of the percentage ownership?

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* 8. For each of the optional asset classes below, do you agree that they should be optional?

For instance, secondaries are deemed optional due to the lack of influence and lack of visibility into the underlying PCs.

  Agree Partially agree Disagree
Secondaries
Fund of funds
Direct lending in private debt
Syndicated debt in private debt

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* 9. Do you think the target boundary requirement for any of the asset classes should be revisited and why?

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* 10. Do you agree that the language in PE-R10 – Phaseout of Thermal Coal Investments and PE-R11– Disclosure of Fossil Fuel Investments and Lending is specific enough to the PE sector?

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* 11. Regarding PE-R13 – Triggered Target Recalculation, do you agree that the current examples are relevant to the PE sector?

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* 12. Regarding PE-R13 – Triggered Target Recalculation, what else should be considered significant changes in institutional structure and activities in the PE context?

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* 13. Regarding PE-C18 – Disclosure of Target(s) Portfolio Coverage, do you agree that the example metrics provided are relevant to the PE sector in terms of defining the the magnitude of a firm’s business activities, which may involve multiple strategies?

 
 
 
Questions for road testers

Several PE firms in the project expert advisory group (EAG) or their supporting consultants will be applying this draft guidance on their GHG inventory and portfolios to develop partial or a full suite of SBTs.

Depending on individual road testers' preference and readiness, road testing could involve preparing a scope 1 and 2 GHG inventory, setting a scope 1 and 2 target, identifying relevant asset classes in Table 9.1 and developing targets that cover several or all of the required asset classes using relevant methods.

For road testers or their supporting consultants intending to submit complete scope 1, 2 and 3 targets for validation by SBTi, please refer to (and fill out)  the SBTi Target Submission Form and Guidance for Financial Institutions during the development of your targets to understand the information required for a SBTi validation. The submission form includes fields to enter scope 1 and 2, and scope 3 portfolio target information, as well as target language templates and action reporting templates. 

If you would like to receive a validation decision on your targets from SBTi by COP21, please submit the completed submission form to SBTi by the end of September at the latest. Given the project team’s limited capacity, PE firms or their supporting consultants that are road testing with the purpose of submitting targets for SBTi for validation by the end of September will be prioritized in terms of technical support. 

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* 14. Are you part of the project EAG AND road testing the guidance?

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* 15. Are you road testing the guidance but NOT in the EAG?

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* 16. Do you aim to submit targets for validation by SBTi by the end of September?

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* 17. What other metrics are suitable to define SBT portfolio coverage and enable consistent target tracking over time (e.g. assets under management, invested capital, other financial metrics)?

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* 18. How realistic and practical is “Example: Setting a SBT portfolio coverage target considering portfolio turnover” in section 9.3.3?

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* 19. After testing the SBT portfolio coverage method on your portfolio(s), are you able to meet the minimum SBT coverage threshold in the following timeframe?  The guidance provides an example of Transition Capital with a target year of 2025 only, but we would like to understand the feasibility of reaching higher SBT coverage in 2030 and 2040, in combination with the Additional Recommendations provided. 

  Yes No
by 2025
by 2030
by 2040

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* 20. How helpful are the Additional Recommendations (starting from section 9.3.2.1 in sub heading red texts) provided for the application of SBT portfolio coverage?

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* 21. How realistic and practical is  “Example: Setting a SBT temperature rating target considering influence” in section 9.5.3?

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* 22. How helpful are the Additional Recommendations (starting from section in 9.5.2.1 in sub heading red texts) provided for the application of Temperature Rating?

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* 23. If you are a multi-strategy fund, the guidance currently provides guidance on formulating target language if targets are set on two or more asset classes (section 11.1). Does the guidance provide enough clarity on how multi strategy funds should set targets?

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* 24. Overall, what else should we improve in the guidance to provide clear guidance on compiling a GHG inventory and setting scope 1, 2, and 3 targets for a PE firm? Please name the section or page number to provide specific comments.

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* 25. Please describe the targets you have developed after conducting the road testing exercise, using target language template provided in Table 10.1 of the draft guidance. Please use as many fields as necessary.  

We would like to understand what types of initial targets you have come up with and if you have questions about the target language template. 

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* 26. Please provide other general comments here (e.g. areas beyond ones highlighted in grey in the draft).

 
Thank you very much for your input and have a wonderful summer!
                                                                                           SBTi Private Equity Project Team

 

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