Securities and Exchange Commission’s Proposed Rule on Climate Disclosure and Related Challenges to Democratic Governance

All businesses face climate-related risks—including large public companies, small businesses, banks, insurance companies, and investment companies, and these physical and transition risks can affect companies’ long-term resilience and profitability. The extent of those impacts depends on how companies and financial actors prepare for climate risk, account for emissions, and adapt to technological change, new regulations and consumer shifts.
In other words, retirement savers—people like teachers, nurses, and firefighters with pensions, as well as anyone with a 401(k) or IRA—could have their savings invested in companies that do not have credible plans to address climate-related financial risks, thereby putting retirement savers at significant financial risk.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s proposed rule to require public companies to make annual climate-related financial disclosures—like their vulnerability to climate disasters, their current level of greenhouse gas emissions, and whether they have a strategy to address their climate-related financial risks—can help investors, including working people, make informed investment decisions to assess risks and protect their savings.

Event co-hosts: Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Friends of the Earth, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Oxfam America, National Family Farm Coalition, Public Citizen, and Sierra Club.

Speaker Biographies

Climate-related financial risk resources:

SEC Comment Letters

Ag, Food, Land, and environmental groups in support of Scope 3 emissions – March 2023 | Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and other groups

Letter from 51 Members of Congress in support of a strong final rule – March 2023 | Senators Warren and Whitehouse, Representatives Goldman and Raskin

Supplemental Comment on Scope 3 emissions – February 2023 | Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund

Evidence of Increased Climate Disclosures – February 2023 | Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Markets

Climate Change, West Virginia v. EPA, and the SEC’s Distinctive Statutory Mandate – January 2023 | Securities Law Experts Jill E. Fisch, George S. Georgiev, Donna M. Nagy, Cynthia A. Williams

Market Reactions to the Inflation Reduction Act – December 2022 | Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund

SEC Climate Disclosure Comments – June 2022 | Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Sierra Club, Ocean Conservancy, The Sunrise Project

Results of a nationwide survey: Retail investors’ support for the SEC mandating climate-related financial disclosures from public companies – April 2022 | Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen

Commentary

The SEC’s Proposed Scope 3 Emissions Disclosure Will Not Affect Farms and Ranches | Center for American Progress

Analysis shows that investors strongly support the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule | Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets

Why Companies Should Be Required To Disclose Their Scope 3 Emissions | Center for American Progress

Agribusiness opposition to the proposed SEC climate-related financial disclosure rule | The Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

Sustainable investing rules would help you cut polluting companies from your retirement funds | Sierra Club

Supervising the Transition: How Banking Regulators Can Address the Coming Shift to Net-Zero Emissions | Roosevelt Institute

News Articles

SEC’s Climate Risk Disclosure Proposal: A Good First Step | Bloomberg Law

The Finance Industry Needs Better Climate Disclosures | Bloomberg Law, authored by Sierra Club

Right-Wing Attack on Sustainable Finance Is the Latest Form of Climate Denial | Sierra Magazine