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 $500 million in 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.
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