The US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules that compel large companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and tell investors how their business is affected by climate change. The new rules are weaker than what the SEC initially proposed in March 2022, which would have included a fuller picture of a company’s carbon footprint.
“This tracking will be extremely expensive, invasive, and burdensome for farmers and ranchers,” agricultural groups including soybean, corn, beef, and pork producers wrote in their comments to the SEC. After facing swift backlash from industry groups, particularly in agriculture and banking, and garnering some 24,000 comments from the public, the SEC blew past its initial 2023 deadline to finalize the rule and eventually watered it down.