As the financial community waits for the Securities and Exchange Commission to unveil its highly anticipated climate disclosure rule, a pair of industry observers say the markets regulator will be able to ward off legal challenges about its authority to issue environmental policy.
Chair Gary Gensler said in September that the SEC would propose a rule mandating disclosure by U.S.-listed companies of so-called scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations, as well as potentially include scope 3 emissions by suppliers anywhere in the world, and would do so by the end of 2021.
However, at the SEC’s open meeting Wednesday, the first of the year, commissioners took up no proposals from its Division of Corporation Finance, whose staff is working on the draft. An agency spokesperson didn’t respond to an emailed message seeking comment.
