The global development agenda has become increasingly focused on attracting private investments to fill a so-called financing gap to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As part of this trend, states are encouraged to “ease the business climate”, remove “regulatory barriers” and de-risk investments to incentivize private actors. This approach, however, undermines the important and potentially transformative regulatory role of the state. This event, co-sponsored by GI-ESCR, drew attention to the public policy options available for states to regulate the financial sector and asset management industry, as well as discuss some of the current pitfalls of a private-first agenda, including failures of voluntary ESG initiatives, greenwashing, SDG-washing, and risks related to public private partnerships (PPPs).