Two leading environmental groups are moving to drop their lawsuits challenging a landmark climate risk reporting rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission that they had argued did not go far enough.
The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council said in separate court filings Friday that they will focus on pushing for improvements to corporate America’s reporting of climate-related financial risks, rather than fighting the SEC in court over the rule’s content. Opening briefs in the cases were due June 14.
Finalized in March, the SEC’s rule was designed to set up a new framework for how and when thousands of public companies in the U.S. should report climate-related information — including, in some cases, greenhouse gas emissions — to their investors. But the final version was significantly pared back from the SEC’s original proposal, frustrating certain progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups who warned that the rule doesn’t include critical information that investors need today.
“The SEC’s rule is a step forward for investor protection on climate-related financial risks, even if we felt it fell short in some respects,” the NRDC wrote in its filing. “This petition for review concerned the SEC’s decisions on certain specific disclosures in the Final Rule. However, NRDC has decided to focus its resources on advocating for improvements to climate-related financial disclosures outside of this litigation.”
