California enacts first mandatory climate disclosure law in the US
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two landmark climate-disclosure bills, SB 253 and SB 261, into law, effective on companies from 2026.
The laws require publicly traded and privately held large corporations operating in California to disclose their carbon footprints, including Scope 3 emissions produced throughout their value chain, and to describe how climate change could effect their financial performance.
The laws break new ground on climate-related disclosure in the US, putting the state ahead of federal climate disclosure mandates.
As the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) turns to implementation of the new disclosure rules, we trust we will see a focus in the implementing regulations on ensuring the data is decision-useful. That means ensuring it is digital for easy analysis and consumption, and ensuring it is comparable with climate-related data from the other sustainable disclosure frameworks taking shape not just elsewhere in America but worldwide.
Read more here.
