SEC to vote on contentious climate disclosure rule

by Zack Budryk - 03/05/24 5:01 PM ET

Energy & Environment

The Big Story

SEC to vote on contentious climate disclosure rule

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will vote this week on whether to adopt a contentious rule that would require publicly traded companies to disclose climate change-related information to investors — though the rule could be significantly scaled back compared with what the agency proposed in 2022.

The SEC’s five commissioners are slated to vote on whether to adopt the rule Wednesday, according to a Sunshine notice it published last week.

Supporters of the rule say that it would give investors important information about where their money is going, including how much the businesses they could invest in are contributing to climate change.

Opponents argue that the rule’s disclosure requirements go beyond the SEC’s duty to help investors make informed decisions. Some critics have gone even farther and accused the agency of pursuing a backdoor climate regulation meant to actually cut emissions.

Two years ago, the SEC proposed to require companies to disclose both the risks climate change poses to their businesses and how much they emit.

The proposed rule would also require some companies to share not only the amount of emissions coming from their operations, but also what is emitted through use of their products by consumers. (Requiring disclosure of such product-use emissions has been described as a way to, for example, differentiate the emissions coming from a traditional car company and an electric car company.)

Read more at TheHill.com.

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