Further to a prior Society Alert report regarding an upcoming SEC Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee meeting on the SEC’s proposed rules on climate change disclosure and SPACs, both Cooley and Jim Hamilton’s World of Securities Regulation reported on the climate proposal panel discussion and the laundry list of potential recommendations to the SEC on the proposal, including recommendations regarding:
- Performance by the SEC of a more detailed cost/benefit analysis
- Expanded safe harbors from liability
- Impacts on private companies resulting from public companies’ potential reluctance to include them in the value chain
- Consideration of industry-specific requirements, similar to the SASB framework
- Elimination of the costly attestation requirement
- Treatment of the disclosure as “furnished,” not “filed”
- Delay of the disclosure due date (i.e., subsequent to Form 10-K filing)
- Delay of the general phase-in dates
The foregoing recommendations – while not yet fully fleshed out and formalized - are generally consistent with some of the many concerns and challenges that the Society and other trade/industry group members have identified.We will monitor the status of the recommendations and report more information when available.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!