SEC moves to repeal rule that requires companies to report greenhouse gas emissions and climate risk

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest action to undo Biden-era regulations on climate change, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday proposed repealing a rule that requires some public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from global warming.

The climate-disclosure rule has been on hold since last year, after the Republican-led commission said it was pausing its legal defense after legal challenges by business groups and Republican state attorneys general.

The SEC said in a statement that it is now moving to rescind the disclosure rules “in their entirety because they exceed the scope of the agency’s statutory authority.” The rules, finalized in 2024, “impose substantial costs on public companies and their shareholders that are not justified by the informational benefits they may provide to some investors,” the commission said.

Eliminating the rule will “avoid the practical effect of dictating corporate behavior” and ensure that agency rules will “be imposed only when the expected benefits justify the likely costs and burdens,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement.

Environmental groups said the action would leave investors without data they need to accurately assess financial risks and other hazards related to climate change.

“The SEC’s mission is to protect investors and the public by ensuring they have access to material information,” said Kathy Fallon, director of land systems at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. “While imperfect, the rule was an important step toward giving investors consistent information about financially material climate risks, including the use of carbon offsets.”

She urged the commission to retain the rule and enforce disclosure requirements “that give both investors and the public the transparency they need.”

Repeal of the climate-disclosure rule is among dozens of environmental rollbacks imposed in President Donald Trump’s second term. The Environmental Protection Agency has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted deregulatory efforts that Trump calls the largest such move in American history and canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has focused on weakening or eliminating regulations perceived as climate-friendly, including revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

Zeldin has said his actions will put a “dagger through the heart of climate change religion.”

The SEC, an independent agency whose members are appointed by the president, approved the climate rule in March 2024 on a party-line vote. Three Democratic commissioners supported it and two Republicans opposed.

The commission currently has three Republican members, including Atkins, and no Democrats.

The 2024 rule was one of the most anticipated in recent years from the nation’s top financial regulator, drawing more than 24,000 comments from companies, auditors, legislators and trade groups over two years. The vote brought the U.S. closer to the European Union and states like California, which have imposed similar corporate disclosure rules.

Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who long pushed for the disclosure rule, said the SEC announcement “is the result of years of work by corporate polluters to delay, defang and decimate rules meant to protect people’s investments from risky and reckless business models.”

Americans’ retirement security, union pensions and savings should be protected by the SEC, “not put in harm’s way by companies that are exposed to climate risks or that depend on an unfettered ability to pollute in order to make money,” Markey said in an email to The Associated Press.

Tom Zimpleman, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the SEC is shirking its responsibility to protect investors. “Climate risk is financial risk,” he said.

A public comment period will remain open for 60 days following publication of the proposal in the Federal Register, expected in the next few days.