Biden admin approves final corporate climate risk disclosure rule

‘Darkest day in the history of the SEC’: Biden admin approves final corporate climate risk disclosure rule


The Biden administration approved its final rule for corporate climate risk disclosure on Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to approve the watered-down final rule nearly two years after promulgating a more aggressive proposal in March 2022. The final rule will mandate medium-sized and large public companies in the U.S. to disclose climate change risks and data on the emissions generated directly by their operations in their financial reports, according to The Hill.

The broader initial proposal would have required many companies to disclose the emissions generated directly and indirectly by their operations, including emissions attributable to a company’s supply chains and those created by the end use of products.

“Today should be considered the darkest day in the history of the SEC. With this decision, the commission has mocked its statutory authority, extended the reach of its regulations beyond public markets where it belongs, and applied countless new costs onto the American public,” Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, said of the final rule. “While this rule will undoubtedly be challenged and hopefully overturned, the SEC embarrassed itself today.”

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