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ARTICLE · 14 MARCH 2024

Early Note On SEC's Final Climate Rules: Governance, Materiality And Dissent

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The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted (in a 3-2 vote) final rules requiring disclosures about the material impacts of climate-related risks on their business, financial condition, and governance.

United StatesCorporate/Commercial Law

The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted (in a 3-2 vote) final rules requiring disclosures about the material impacts of climate-related risks on their business, financial condition, and governance.

These rules had first been proposed in March 2022. The SEC adopted the final rules after considering, over a two-year period, some 4,500 unique comment letters from various authors. The SEC made some modifications from the Proposed Rules, most conspicuously withdrawing disclosure of greenhouse emissions from the users of a company's products and services (so-called Scope 3 emissions).

The SEC observes that many companies currently disclose substantial climate related information but characterizes this disclosure as "partial," "fragmented," "inconsistent" and "often difficult for investors to find and/or compare across companies." The SEC says that its experience with its existing climate disclosure guidelines, in effect since 2010, indicates inadequate

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