Environmentalists are up in arms about the proposed rescission of climate disclosure rules by Wall Street's top regulator. There is a Pollyanna case that the action may have little immediate impact on corporate reporting, but the debate over the rules also has raised questions about the authority of financial regulators.
First, the details: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, now consisting of only three Republicans, looks set to eliminate rules passed when Democrats ran the agency.
Climate activists want the agency to reverse course. With greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise, "the need for this type of disclosure has only grown as climate-related financial impacts accelerate and reshape the economy," reads a statement released by Public Citizen and 36 other organizations.
Reading up on this debate you can see two parallel arguments: first, lots of companies already make climate disclosures and probably won't quit even if the rule evaporates.
But at the same time, the SEC's pullback could undermine future attempts at disclosure regulation, a hope of some business groups and a fear of some activists. So who knows what lessons future SEC commissions might take from this back-and-forth? You can read up on the issue by clicking the button below.
