The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules on Wednesday requiring publicly traded companies to disclose financial risks to their investors caused by climate change and efforts to address the crisis. The rule is at once one of the most far-reaching federal measures to protect investors and Americans’ retirement savings from otherwise undisclosed climate risks, and is a watered-down version of an originally proposed rule that would have required companies to disclose Scope 3 emissions — those three-quarters of emissions released by their supply chain and customers.
The revisions weakening the rule were made by the SEC in an effort to preempt or survive pending congressional repeal efforts and legal challenges by corporate interest groups, specifically those representing fossil fuel industries. “It’s ultimately better to finish this rule than not,” Public Citizen’s David Arkush told The New Republic, “but losing Scope 3 is a big step backward, even though it’s still a step forward from the existing state of affairs.” (AP, Washington Post $, New York Times $, New Republic, Inside Climate News, Business Insider, NPR, CNN, Tech Crunch, Yahoo, E&E $, Barron’s, CNBC, Houston Chronicle, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill, The Verge, Bloomberg $, Politico, FT $, NBC, The Guardian, Reuters, CNBC; Scope: New York Times $, Fortune, Utility Dive, Heatmap $, Wall Street Journal $; Commentary: Bloomberg, Mark Gongloff column $)