FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 11, 2025

CONTACT
Carter Dougherty
carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

Trump SEC Sides with Corporate Polluters Over Investors, Asks Court to Halt Climate Transparency Litigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Acting Chair Mark Uyeda has requested that the 8th Circuit halt litigation of the agency’s climate transparency rule in light of his and Commissioner Peirce’s opposition to the rule and President Trump’s anti-regulatory order. 

The climate disclosure rule (titled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors”) was adopted last March and would require companies to disclose standardized, comparable information to investors about financially material climate-related financial risks. 

The proposed rule garnered near unanimous investor support: 100 percent of investors that commented on the proposed rule—representing nearly $50 trillion in assets under management—supported qualitative, standardized disclosures in line with those of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and 97 percent supported disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Acting Chair Uyeda claims his views were informed ‘by many comments on all sides,’ but he clearly ignored the hundreds of comments from investors who provided near unanimous support for the rule. Instead, he cites comments from the fossil fuel-aligned Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers,” said Alex Martin, policy director for climate finance at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF). “There is no doubt: climate change is already affecting companies’ bottom lines. The question that remains is whether or not the SEC will remain a fully independent, federal agency and uphold its mandate to protect investors, especially working-class people with 401ks and pensions, or put their life savings at risk to insulate corporate polluters.”

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