Tag Archives: disclosure

Climate Risks & Opportunities in SEC Filings

 A year has passed since the SEC issued an interpretive release describing the kinds of climate change related disclosures that the Commission believes should be reported by all publicly traded companies, but many questions still remain regarding how to comply.  With annual 10-K filings due at the end of this month, concrete examples of best practices in disclosures could be very helpful.  Potentially useful is a new report by Ceres that examines the state of disclosures in FY 2009 SEC filings to identify specific examples of how well companies are disclosing information that is important to investors. … More

Accounting for the Financial Impacts of Climate Change: ASTM Releases a New Standard

Now that the SEC has indicated that public companies should be considering climate change in evaluating financial risks, the pressing questions include what should be evaluated and how it should be reported.  ASTM’s newly released standard on Financial Disclosures Attributed to Climate Change, E2718-10 may be just the thing.  The standard, which has been under development for the last 2 years, provides guidance on processes for identifying,… More

Insurance Regulators Vote to Weaken Climate Disclosure Rules

Just over a year ago, we noted the surprising, unanimous decision by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to adopt rules requiring insurers to publicly disclose the impacts of climate change on their business decisions, to begin May 1, 2010.  Well, not so fast.   As Climate Wire reported, at Sunday’s NAIC meeting, a the commissioners voted 27-22 to make the disclosure rules optional for states to adopt,… More

SEC Issues Climate Change Disclosure Interpretive Release

For those of you who missed it, the SEC finally issued an interpretive release last week clarifying public company disclosure obligations concerning climate change. Rather than rehash it here, I am instead linking to the client alert that we did on the topic.

It is worth noting that, as mentioned in the alert, the release has engendered significant political controversy. Indeed, ranking member Spencer Bachus sent a letter to the SEC questioning the appropriateness of the release. My favorite question in the letter:

Do you believe the Commission’s role is to promote a social policy agenda through the securities laws and regulations?… More

Coming Soon to a 10-K Near You: Climate Risks

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued interpretive guidance yesterday which requires publicly traded companies to consider the impacts of climate change – both the physical damage it could cause, as well as the economic impacts of domestic and international greenhouse gas emissions-reduction rules – and disclose those risks to investors. As we noted when discussing the potential for this announcement in October, the disclosure requirements are likely to affect companies in a wide range of industries.… More

SEC Reverses Bush Policy on Climate Risk in Shareholder Resolutions

The US Securities and Exchange Commission released a staff bulletin yesterday that reverses a Bush administration policy that excluded shareholder resolutions which asked companies to disclose their climate-related financial exposure. While not the rule-making we discussed last week, this could be a significant change for the boards of large companies who may now be forced to respond to shareholder concerns about the risks that greenhouse gases and climate change can create.… More

Climate Risk Disclosures — Coming Soon to a 10-K Near You?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is re-examining its rules regarding whether companies should or must disclose climate change related risks. According to an article in ClimateWire, revisions could be issued by the end of October. On Friday, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter said that SEC staff are working on preparing recommendations, and two options are still on the table. One option is a rule-making that would set specific rules for disclosing climate risks.… More