Companies across all industries are facing increasing scrutiny related to their ESG practices and disclosure. Investors, employees, and other stakeholders have begun to focus increasingly on ESG practices and to place heightened importance on the environmental and social cost of their investments, business decisions and consumer choices. For example, an increasing number of investment funds focus on positive ESG practices and sustainability scores when making an investment decision. Additionally, certain institutional investors have demonstrated increased activism with respect to their existing investments, including by urging companies to take certain actions in areas of perceived ESG significance.
Investors, particularly institutional investors, use or may use third-party benchmarks and scores to assess our ESG practices against our peers and if we are perceived as lagging, such investors may decide to not invest in our ordinary shares or to divest from their current investment, and we may face reputational challenges. Alternatively, such investors may decide to actively engage with us to improve ESG disclosure or performance, and may also make voting decisions on this basis. Given increased investor focus and demand, public disclosure regarding ESG practices is becoming more broadly expected. Any disclosure we make may include our policies and practices on a variety of ESG matters, including corporate governance, environmental compliance, human capital management, and workforce inclusion and diversity. It is possible that stakeholders may not be satisfied with our ESG practices, reporting and goals, or with our speed of adoption. If our ESG practices and disclosures do not meet investor, tenant, employee or other stakeholder expectations, which continue to evolve, our reputation and employee retention, and access to capital may be negatively impacted.
In 2022, the SEC proposed extensive rules aimed at enhancing and standardizing climate-related disclosures in an effort to foster greater consistency, comparability and reliability of climate-related information among public issuers. In March 2024, the SEC adopted final rules which will require public issuers to include prescribed climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports, including information regarding greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related risks and opportunities and related financial impacts, governance and strategy. Additionally, we may become subject to new compliance requirements and/or new costs or taxes associated with natural resource or energy usage and related emissions (such as a "carbon tax"), which could increase our operating costs.
We could incur additional costs relating to implementing, monitoring and reporting various ESG practices and initiatives, as well as complying with applicable law, which could place a strain on our personnel, systems and resources. Our failure, or perceived failure, to meet the goals and objectives we set in any ESG disclosure within the timelines announced or at all, or the expectations of our various stakeholders could negatively impact our reputation, tenant and employee retention, and access to capital.