On December 5, 2024, CARB issued an Enforcement Notice discussing its enforcement standards for 2026 climate reporting under SB 253, and recognizing that “companies may need some lead time to implement new data collection processes” required to comply with the statute.
SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, requires certain business entities—namely, those formed under U.S. state or federal law that “do[] business in California” and had total revenues in excess of $1 billion in the prior fiscal year—to annually report Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse-gas emissions for the prior fiscal year starting in 2026, and Scope 3 greenhouse-gas emissions for the prior fiscal year starting in 2027. The recent amendment to SB 253 (SB 219, signed into law in September 2024) did not extend these reporting deadlines.
On December 5, 2024, CARB issued an Enforcement Notice signaling that it will exercise its enforcement discretion regarding Scope 1 and 2 emissions reporting in 2026. Per the Enforcement Notice, “for the first report due in 2026, reporting entities may submit scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from ‘the reporting entity’s prior fiscal year’ that can be determined from information the reporting entity already possesses or is already collecting at the time this Notice was issued.” The Enforcement Notice goes on to state that, “for the first reporting cycle, CARB will not take enforcement action for incomplete reporting against entities, as long as the companies make a good faith effort to retain all data relevant to emissions reporting for the entity’s prior fiscal year.” CARB plans to provide additional details on reporting requirements for subsequent reporting cycles as part of its SB 253-related rulemaking, which CARB must complete by July 1, 2025.
CARB’s Enforcement Notice can be found here.
