Companies will need to reveal detailed information about their greenhouse gas pollution under a new US Securities and Exchange Commission plan, portending a major shift in how corporations must show they are dealing with climate change.
“Over the generations, the SEC has stepped in when there’s significant need for the disclosure of information relevant to investors’ decisions,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. “Today’s proposal would help issuers more efficiently and effectively disclose these risks.” Hester Peirce, who opposed the plan as the agency’s only Republican commissioner, said the proposal would ultimately end up costing investors.
Many of the plan’s elements align with a reporting regime known as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure. That voluntary framework asks corporations to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and report on how they manage global-warming risks. Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of the parent company of Bloomberg News, is chairman of that effort.
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