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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a much-anticipated rule requiring public companies to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions and expected climate risk.
The rule passed 3-2 on Wednesday, supported by three Democratic commissioners and opposed by two Republicans.
The rule has been under consideration for nearly two years, and the guidelines commissioners adopted Wednesday are weaker than those proposed before.
In previous drafts of the rule, the SEC would have required public companies to report some indirect emissions, referred to as “Scope 3” emissions, which happen along a company’s supply chain rather than as a result of their direct operations. However, that proposal was met with strong backlash from companies over concerns about quantifying and tracking these emissions, the Associated Press reports.
“Our federal securities laws lay out a basic bargain. Investors get to decide which risks they want to take so long as companies raising money from the public make what President Franklin Roosevelt called ‘complete and truthful disclosure,’” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. “Over the last 90 years, the SEC has updated, from time to time, the disclosure requirements underlying that basic bargain and, when necessary, provided guidance with respect to those disclosure requirements.”
This is a developing story…
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