Climate Disclosure Rule Ensures Necessary Climate Data for Investors
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The comment period for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rule on climate-related risk disclosures comes to a close today. Public Citizen, along with Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Sierra Club, the Ocean Conservancy, and the Sunrise Project, today submitted a 180 page comment supporting the rule and suggesting it be strengthened by:
- adding mandatory, independently verified disclosures of value chain (Scope 3) emissions by all companies;
- speeding up required disclosures and assurance of emissions information that is critical for protecting investors; and
- ensuring disclosures around a company’s environmental, racial, and community impacts.
David Arkush, managing director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program, issued the following statement:
“Investors deserve to know how companies are reacting to the global shifts created by climate change and the zero-carbon transition. Some corporations are worried that investors will move their money when they learn how companies are handling, or failing to handle, climate-related risks. That’s how disclosures are supposed to work.
“The proposal should be strengthened to give investors even more of what they need to make sound decisions—disclosures of all Scope 3 emissions, a major indicator of transition risk, and data on community impacts.
“Public Citizen applauds the SEC for issuing the proposal, and we will continue working to make it the strongest rule possible.”