WASHINGTON — The business world is divided over whether the Securities and Exchange Commission should require emissions data from corporations’ suppliers and customers when the agency finalizes a rule on climate-related financial risk disclosure.
While the SEC sees broad support for its proposed rule to mandate standardized information on companies’ direct emissions and other material risks from climate change, agency staff members reviewing comments face a difficult task in striking a balance in the coming months on emissions from suppliers and other third parties.
A wide range of billion-dollar asset managers, investor coalitions and boutique firms focused on environmental, social and governance investing told the SEC they support the agency’s provisions to include Scope 3 emissions, meaning indirect releases from supply chains. But several trade groups say there is strong opposition.
“The SEC has also taken the correct approach by incorporating many of the elements set forth by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and by requiring disclosure of [greenhouse gas] emissions, including disclosure (for many companies) of Scope 3 emissions and third-party assurance of Scopes 1 and 2 emissions,” Ceres, a nonprofit organization that works with ESG investors and companies to address climate risk and other sustainability issues in capital markets, said Friday in a letter to the SEC.