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🇺🇸 Regulator6 Mar 2024

SEC adopts climate disclosure rules for US public companies, then pauses them

On 6 March 2024 the SEC adopted rules requiring public companies to disclose material climate-related risks, board oversight and certain financial statement effects. Larger filers also had to disclose material Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Legal challenges followed, and the SEC stayed the rules in April 2024 before they took effect. They never came into force.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3-2 on 6 March 2024 to adopt rules to enhance and standardise climate-related disclosures by public companies.

What the rules required
  • Disclosure of material climate-related risks and their actual and potential effects on strategy and financial condition.
  • Board oversight and management's role, risk management processes, and any climate targets or goals.
  • Large accelerated and accelerated filers: material Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, with limited assurance at first and reasonable assurance later for large accelerated filers.
  • Notes to the financial statements covering certain costs and losses from severe weather and other natural conditions, above set thresholds.
Who was affected

SEC registrants filing annual reports and registration statements, and the boards and governance teams overseeing climate risk.

What happened next

The rules never took effect. Challenges were consolidated in the Eighth Circuit, and on 4 April 2024 the SEC stayed the rules pending judicial review. In March 2025 the SEC voted to end its defence of the rules, and the court held the case in abeyance. On 29 May 2026 the SEC proposed rescinding the rules entirely. Companies may still face climate disclosure duties under state law, such as California's, or under non-US regimes.

Sources