Ahead of the closure of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) public comment period for their climate risk disclosure rule, Evergreen Action Policy Lead Mattea Mrkusic released the following statement:
“For too long, corporations have been able to conceal the true scope of their exposure to climate-related financial risk from investors. The SEC’s proposed rule for climate risk disclosure is necessary to create a more transparent, equitable, and secure American economy. With the support of stakeholders in both industry and advocacy, it’s clear there’s widespread and growing demand for greater transparency about the threat climate risk poses to individual investors and our entire financial system. The SEC should move quickly to strengthen and finalize this rule so companies and investors alike can make fully informed decisions about their exposure to climate-related risk.
“In particular, the SEC must require the disclosure of Scope 3 emissions (greenhouse gas pollution from a company’s value chain) for all large companies. The SEC shouldn’t allow companies to decide on their own if their Scope 3 emissions are ‘material,’ as currently proposed by the rule. Such a self-determined process would lead to companies underreporting emissions.”
As of today, joint action partners have gathered 58,063 comments for the SEC on its proposal. Evergreen helped drive 6,939 supportive comments. People from across the financial spectrum—public officials, public companies, asset managers, scientists, and concerned individuals—have voiced their opinion and submitted a comment, the vast majority of whom are in support of a strong climate risk disclosure rule. According to the comment grouping by the SEC, prior to the joint action comments submission, over 75% of comments were in support of the rule, further reinforcing the strong public support for SEC to take action on this issue. Investors want and need full information on businesses' climate-related financial risk and the agency should move swiftly to strengthen and finalize this important proposal.
###