Here’s what the SEC’s looming emissions rule means for comms

Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, raised the temperature of critics last month when he unveiled a far-reaching proposal to set standards for disclosures about global warming by publicly traded companies.

The SEC approved the proposal by a 3-1 vote, with the lone Republican on the Commission dissenting, saying, “We are Not the Securities and Environment Commission — At Least Not Yet.”

Who says securities regulators can’t be funny?

We know how lawyers like to argue, and the proposed rule would “arguably result in one of the most sweeping changes to public companies’ disclosure obligations in recent memory,” says law firm Kirkland & Ellis. The Commission says a third of the 7,000 corporate annual reports it reviewed in 2019 and 2020 included some climate impact disclosures, a fraction of the companies to be swept up in the proposed rule.

The 506-page rule would require detailed information about climate-related risks to a business and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we’re leaving the mind-numbing details to someone else.