SEC Issues Climate-Change Guidance

The Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time has voted to provide public companies with guidance on disclosing business or legal risk related to climate change.

The commission's interpretive guidelines, scheduled for release soon, will not create new legal requirements nor modify existing ones, but are intended to “provide clarity and enhance consistency for public companies and their investors,” the commission said.

“We are not opining on whether the world's climate is changing, at what pace it might be changing, or due to what causes,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said at the commission’s Jan. 27 meeting.

“Nothing that the Commission does today should be construed as weighing in on those topics. Today's guidance will help to ensure that our disclosure rules are consistently applied.”

By Eric Miller
Staff Reporter