The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will accept public comments until June 17, 2022 on proposed rules that would require public companies to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports. The proposed rules would require information about a registrant’s climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on its business, results of operations or financial condition. The required information about climate-related risks would also include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions. Certain climate-related financial metrics also would be required in a registrant’s audited financial statements.

Although the SEC would require only public companies to comply with the proposed rules, the rules would require a public company to report emissions from other parts of its value chain that it does not control if they are considered material and/or the public company has set GHG emissions targets that include the value chain. Public companies may seek to obtain that information directly from participants in their value chain, including private companies that are not directly subject to the proposed rules.

If you wish to comment on these proposed rules, please click here to be directed to the SEC’s comment portal.