Commissioner Crenshaw Highlights SEC Focus On Climate Issues

Last week, during a program on "Building the Financial System of the 21st Century," in the course of a speech principally focused on various market risks, SEC Commissioner Crenshaw nonetheless availed herself of the opportunity to mention that "[t]he Commission's staff is developing a proposal that will seek to provide decision-useful and comparable climate-related disclosures to investors so they can better understand an issuer's climate risks." 

The fact that SEC Commissioner Crenshaw took pains to emphasize yet again the SEC's focus on promulgating new disclosures concerning climate risks highlights the importance of this initiative to the SEC and its senior policymakers.  All of those regulated by the SEC can reasonably anticipate that this will continue to be a significant focus of SEC activities over the coming months, which will likely extend from disclosures to enforcement activity concerning perceived failures to comply with said disclosures.