The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is rescinding rules that require companies to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports.
The commission’s proposal focuses on returning the agency to its core mandate and restoring a materiality-focused approach to securities regulation.
“SEC disclosure obligations should comply with the Commission’s statutory authority, be guided by materiality as the North Star, avoid the practical effect of dictating corporate behavior, and be imposed only when the expected benefits justify the likely costs and burdens,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said.
In 2024, the SEC approved amendments to mandate highly specific and granular disclosure from virtually all public companies about climate-related matters such as greenhouse gas emissions, management of climate-related risks, and the financial statement effects of severe weather events. The rules were stayed later in 2024 pending litigation. Then in March 2025, the commission voted to end its defense of the final rules.
The commission is now proposing to rescind the climate disclosure rules in their entirety because they exceed the scope of the agency’s statutory authority. Even if it had authority to adopt such final rules, the SEC believes there are policy reasons to rescind them entirely. According to the SEC they are inconsistent with a registrant-specific, materiality-based approach to disclosure that best serves the interests of registrants and investors; they go beyond the policy concerns of the federal securities laws; they impose substantial costs on public companies and their shareholders that are not justified by the informational benefits they may provide to some investors; and they are at odds with the SEC’s policy objectives of facilitating capital formation and promoting public company status.
The public comment period will remain open for 60 days following the publication of the proposal in the Federal Register.