Federal Regulatory Developments

The SEC has still not issued its final climate-related disclosure rule (originally proposed in March 2022), despite prior indications that it would do so in the fall of 2023. Recently, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda — one of the two Republican appointees to the five-member commission — suggested that the proposed climate-disclosure rule be “re-proposed,” which would further delay any such rule by a number of months, to allow time for further comment (and potentially delay the issuance of a climate disclosure rule beyond the next election in November 2024). However, such a “re-proposing” appears unlikely, as SEC Chair Gensler has reiterated his support for the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule in recent remarks, further opining that a failure to act by the SEC would result in a “fragmented space” due to regulatory initiatives by, among others, Europe and California. According to Gensler, the SEC’s rule would “bring some consistency and comparability” to the array of extant climate disclosures by public companies.