The financial markets are a cesspool of corruption, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is more concerned with climate change these days.
According to reports, America's top market regulator wants publicly traded companies to start providing disclosures to investors about how they are dealing with global warming.
In a proposal, the SEC recommended that businesses report their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as detailed information about how climate change affects their day-to-day operations.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler claims that investors are demanding this information, given what he says are increased risks for businesses to suffer consequences from global warming.
"Our core bargain from the 1930s is that investors get to decide which risks to take, as long as public companies provide full and fair disclosure and are truthful in those disclosures," Gensler is quoted as saying.
"That principle applies equally to our environmental-related disclosures."
Any new rules that come into play would be phased in rather than dropped like a bomb on companies, Gensler added.
If company facilities are too close to sea level, they could get flooded from rising oceans
Sometimes it is difficult to discern what is real and what is satire anymore, but Gensler's new apparent obsession with the climate is very real. And so is his desire to force businesses into compliance with it.
Claiming that this is what investors want, Gensler says that businesses could soon have to report what they are doing to mitigate their operations from the effects of climate change, whatever that might look like in a given area.
A business that is located close to an ocean, for instance, will have to report about what it is doing to mitigate the potential for ocean levels to rise due to global warming.
How much energy a company uses, and how much pollution it emits, are other data points that would need to be addressed in annual reports.
"These are known as 'Scope 1' and 'Scope 2' emissions, respectively," reports NPR.
"'Scope 3' emissions have proved to be more controversial. They are emissions generated by a company's suppliers and customers. Many companies and trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have opposed mandated reporting of Scope 3 emissions, saying it would be too burdensome and complicated to estimate emissions across a company's operations."
Based on the SEC's proposal, companies would be required to determine whether their Scope 3 emissions are "material," meaning whether the data is important enough to reveal to investors.
Both investors and the SEC would also have the ability to challenge a company's assessment.
Smaller companies would be exempt from the Scope 3 emissions reporting requirement, and larger ones would be allowed to phase-in their reporting in stages. The earliest that many companies would be required to report anything is around 2024.
Back in 2011, we reported about how global warming is not actually real since the climate is always changing. It appears as though Gensler missed the memo and is still pushing climate propaganda.
"If adopted, these rules would substantially increase compliance costs for publicly traded companies, which would have the effect of raising prices for American consumers, reducing American jobs, and lowering returns for American investors," warned Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in a letter to Gensler about how Congress needs to review the proposed rules first to see how they will increase costs for companies.
The proposed rules are not yet set in stone, and the public still has 60 days to weigh in on them. If this all sounds like something you oppose, be sure to let the SEC know by leaving a comment.
More related news can be found at Climate.news.
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