Last week, by a vote of three to two, the SEC adopted final rules “to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures by public companies and in public offerings.” The disclosure, which will be included in registration...more
Since many of you may, like me, be having the vapors waiting for the SEC to finally divulge the new climate disclosure rules, I thought I’d share this latest scoop from Reuters. According to Reuters, not only is the SEC...more
Consideration of the SEC’s long anticipated climate disclosure rules—the “Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors”—is finally on the SEC’s open meeting agenda for March 6. There have been...more
Today, Reuters reported exclusively that the SEC is indeed planning to eliminate some of the more controversial requirements in its climate disclosure proposal. Of course, we’re talking Scope 3. (See this PubCo post, this...more
ESG backlash notwithstanding, a recent global survey conducted by KPMG of 550 company directors and members of management showed that the vast majority of global organizations plan to increase spending on sustainability...more
You remember California’s climate legislation signed into law just last year—Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, and Senate Bill 261, Greenhouse gases: climate-related financial risk? (See this...more
Last week, a House Financial Services subcommittee held a hearing with the ominous title “Oversight of the SEC’s Proposed Climate Disclosure Rule: A Future of Legal Hurdles.” Billed as oversight, the hearing certainly...more
The SEC’s Fall 2023 Reg-Flex Agenda—according to the preamble, compiled as of August 22, 2023, reflecting “only the priorities of the Chair”—has now been posted. And it’s Groundhog Day again. All of the Corp Fin agenda items...more
This year’s PLI Securities Regulation Institute was a source for a lot of useful information and interesting perspectives. Panelists discussed a variety of topics, including climate disclosure (although no one shared any...more
As you know, the SEC has proposed a sweeping set of regulations for disclosure on climate (see this PubCo post, this PubCo post and this PubCo post), and we anxiously wait to see what the final rules have in store (obviously...more
The suspense is over. The AP is reporting that California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Sunday that he “plans to sign into law a pair of climate-focused bills intended to force major corporations to be more transparent about...more
Two far-reaching California climate bills, together the “Climate Accountability Package,” have passed in the California legislature and are headed to Governor Gavin Newsom for a final decision. If signed into law, Senate Bill...more
Are you fretting about when (or if) the SEC is going to take action on its climate disclosure proposal and what exactly the SEC has in store for public companies in its final regulations? Consider this: California might just...more
As the ESG backlash escalated this past year, companies have often felt caught between Scylla and Charybdis, struggling to navigate between the company’s commitment to ESG issues that the company believes will contribute to...more
A 2021 article in the WSJ about carbon emissions identified “[o]ne problem facing regulators and companies: Some of the most important and widely used data is hard to both measure and verify.” According to an academic cited...more
That’s what SEC Chair Gary Gensler said about the timeline for the final climate disclosure rules when asked on Monday (probably at the National Press Club), as reported by Reuters. (See this PubCo post, this PubCo post and...more
The SEC’s Spring 2023 Reg-Flex Agenda—according to the preamble, compiled as of April 10, 2023, reflecting “only the priorities of the Chair”—has now been posted. Here is the short-term agenda, which shows most Corp Fin...more
Here’s a scoop from S&P Global Market Intelligence : apparently, the climate disclosure rulemaking that was targeted for adoption in April 2023 has now been pushed back to the fall. At least that’s the information that...more
It’s not just Mickey Mouse that’s feeling the heat from anti-ESG efforts lately. Reuters reports that, so far this year, legislators have filed about 99 so-called “ESG backlash” bills compared with only 39 in 2022; as of...more
According to a recent survey discussed in Global Executives Say Greenwashing Remains Rife, in the WSJ, executives think greenwashing is widespread: almost “three-quarters of executives said most organizations in their...more
Will “weaponization” be Merriam-Webster’s word of the year? On Wednesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler testified to the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the topic of SEC appropriations. The SEC...more
Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint If you’re waiting with bated breath to find out what the SEC has in store for public companies in its final version of its climate disclosure regulations (see this PubCo post, this PubCo post...more
The SEC has apparently let it be known—or perhaps a few reporters are especially intrepid—that it may well pare down and loosen up some of its proposed rules on climate disclosure. In this article in Politico and this...more
On Friday, the SEC announced the departure of Renee Jones as head of Corp Fin. She has been Director of Corp Fin since June 2021 and will be returning to her position on the faculty of Boston College Law School. In her...more
The SEC’s Fall 2022 Reg-Flex Agenda—according to the preamble, compiled as of October 6, 2022, reflecting “only the priorities of the Chair”—has just been posted, and it looks like the SEC will have another frenetic year...more