Assessing SEC Disclosure Requirements after Kyoto

Gregory A Bibler and Nathan J. Brodeur

Originally published February 2005

On February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions took effect, obligating 37 industrialized countries, including Canada and all of the European Union (EU), to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) and other emissions by a combined 5.2% from 1990 emission levels by 2012. To implement Kyoto, EU and other industrialized countries are establishing national plans allocating CO2 emissions among private companies, which allocations then may be sold or bought in the new EU Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme, the first international trading system for CO2 emissions.

The United States is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, and although several bills that would regulate GHG emissions at the federal level have been proposed, none have been adopted. In the absence of national consensus, individual states have adopted their own legislation to limit GHG emissions, and regional coalitions of