US Chamber of Commerce sues SEC over climate risk disclosure rules
Business lobby group the US Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over what it believes are “flawed” new climate risk disclosure rules for listed firms.
According to reports, the US Chamber of Commerce said the greenhouse gas emissions disclosure rules, which mean firms will have to make clear their exposure to weather-related risks and what they are doing to manage the threats, are “substantively harmful changes to 50 years of corporate governance”.
The Chamber said it supported a framework to disclose material climate risks and emissions, but accused the US government of “micro-managing” business in its final rules.
“The best path forward is for the SEC to propose a new rule,” the Chamber told news agencies.
The rules, which were finalised earlier in March, have also triggered legal actions from environmental groups after requirements to disclose Scope 3 emissions through firms’ supply chains were dropped. Environmental group the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the SEC last week, challenging its decision to pare back the final rules.
“While the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule will provide investors with some much-needed information, the commission’s arbitrary decision to remove robust emissions disclosure requirements and other key elements from the proposed rule falls short of what the law requires,” said Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a statement.
Political lines have also been drawn, with a group of eight US states filing a petition for review in the US Court of Appeals.
The SEC said the final rules respond to investors’ demand for more consistent, comparable and reliable information about the financial effects of climate-related risks on operations and how they are being managed, while balancing concerns about the costs of the carrying out this work.
The SEC said it is prepared to “vigorously defend” the climate risk disclosure rules in court actions.
