In a long-anticipated development, on March 6, 2024, the SEC adopted final rules requiring climate-related disclosures.  The rules add:

• • Non-financial disclosures about climate-related risks, how such risks are managed and related board oversight;

• • Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission disclosures along with phased-in attestation requirements for large-accelerated and accelerated filers;

• • Financial statement disclosures about “capitalized costs, expenditures expensed, and losses incurred as a result of severe weather events and other natural conditions, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, drought, wildfires, extreme temperatures, and sea level rise, subject to applicable one percent and de minimis disclosure thresholds”;

• • Disclosures about carbon offsets and renewable energy credits or certificates (RECs) if material; and

• • Information about the impact on the estimates and assumptions used to produce the financialstatements from risks and uncertainties associated with severe weather events and other natural conditions and other related issues, if material.

To help companies and advisors implement these new requirements, PLI’s SEC Institute will offer several programs.

We will present two One-Hour Briefings delving into the final rules at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on April 18, 2024.  The first briefing will focus on governance related disclosures and the second briefing will focus on GHG emission and financial statement disclosures.  We will put links to the briefings in this blog as soon as they are available.

Our Midyear Forums will include in-depth discussion of the details of the rules.

We will also have a special conference in the early fall focused on understanding and implementing these extensive new disclosures.  We will put a link to this conference in this blog as soon as it is available.

You can read more in the related Fact Sheet and the Final Rule Release.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.