California Governor Gavin Newsom will now decide whether businesses with any operational connection to California—physically present in the state or not—either privately held or publicly traded, and with specified revenues annually, will be mandated to publicly disclose all global greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-based “risks.” Having just passed the California Assembly, SB 253 (Weiner) and SB 261 (Stern) are just one signature away from mandating the first climate-related disclosures outside of Europe. Our prior substantive analysis of the bills is here.
In short, SB 253 requires disclosure of all global greenhouse gas emissions—Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3—for any entity with global revenues of at least $1 billion annually. SB 261 would require disclosure of climate-related “risks” in accordance with recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures for any entity with $500 million in annual revenues.
Governor Newsom has until October 14 to sign or veto the bills. He has yet to indicate his position on either bill.
For questions regarding SB 253, SB 261 or any climate-related matters, please contact David Smith.