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SEC Issues Ground-Breaking Guidance Requiring Corporate Disclosure of Material Climate Change Risks and Opportunities
January 27, 2010The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today issued new interpretive guidance that clarifies what publicly traded companies need to disclose to investors in terms of climate-related "material" effects on business operations, whether from new emissions management policies, the physical impacts of changing weather or business opportunities associated with the growing clean energy economy. The guidance, the first economy-wide climate risk disclosure requirement in the world, was approved in a formal vote at today's SEC Commissioners meeting in Washington. The lack of specific guidance until now has resulted in weak and inconsistent climate-related disclosure by public companies. Today's decision comes after formal requests by leading investors for the SEC to require full corporate disclosure of wide-ranging climate-related business impacts -- and strategies for addressing those impacts -- in their financial filings. Full release.