California is pushing ahead with its own climate disclosure legislation, potentially beating the SEC to the punch. The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and the Greenhouse gases: climate-related financial risk (SB 261) have been packaged together into California’s Climate Accountability Package. If signed into law, SB 253 would require US business entities with annual revenues of over $1 billion that do business in California to disclose GHG emissions data. SB 261 would require companies to prepare reports disclosing their climate-related financial risk and describe measures to reduce and adapt to that risk. Both bills have gained corporate support and have passed in the California Senate. The bills are expected to come up for approval in the Assembly before September 14. SB 253 would mandate the disclosure of GHG emissions data to a nonprofit emissions reporting organization, which would make the data publicly available on a digital platform. The disclosures would need to be independently verified by a third-party auditor. The bill would also allow the use of the GHG Protocol for scope 3 emissions calculations. The revised bill also introduces assurance requirements for scope 1 and 2 emissions, with a potential for scope 3 assurance requirements from 2030. The bill also includes a safe harbor provision for misstatements. The California legislation goes beyond the proposed SEC rules, as it applies to private entities as well as public companies and does not have a materiality threshold for scope 3 emissions. However, the SEC’s proposal requires disclosure of climate-related financial statement metrics, which the California legislation does not.
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ICE is preparing to introduce a futures market for carbon credits under CORSIA, which will focus on reducing airline emissions.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced plans to launch a physically delivered futures contract for carbon credits eligible for use by the...
