SEC Staff Comment Letters Continue To Seek Enhanced Climate-Related Disclosures

While the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new climate-related disclosure rules remain pending, recent comment letters show that the SEC staff is not waiting for the rules to be finalized in order to seek more detailed disclosures from public companies around environmental issues.

In August and September 2023, staff in the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance sent comment letters to over 12 companies relating to their fiscal year 2022 Form 10-K (the 2023 Letters). The comments issued in the 2023 Letters show the staff continuing to push companies to disclose more information in their SEC reports regarding the impact of climate change on their business and operations. In several of the comment letter exchanges, the SEC staff sent follow-up questions asking for additional climate-related information and disclosures. In these follow-up questions, the staff frequently requested information on the processes each company uses to determine the materiality