WASHINGTON, D.C.—Benjamin Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy, issued the following statement in connection with SEC Acting Chair Uyeda’s statement indicating that the SEC may no longer defend the climate-related disclosure rule the agency adopted in 2024:

“The Acting Chair suggested in his statement that the SEC lacked the authority to adopt rules requiring companies to disclose climate-related risks, but nothing is further from the truth. Disclosure is the bedrock of the federal securities laws. Rules that provide investors with information about the risks companies face are well within the SEC’s statutory authority.

“As we explained in our amicus brief defending the rule, the SEC has broad statutory authority to require company disclosures that protect investors and serve the public interest. The climate risk disclosure rule does just that. It protects investors by providing them with information about the climate-related risks the companies they invest in face.

“Investors suffer when they lack access to material information, and the climate-related risks companies face are material to their bottom line. That is why the SEC passed the rule in the first place—not to regulate climate change but to ensure that investors know about the climate-related risks that matter just like other risks that are important to investors. The suggestion that the SEC will no longer defend the rule will prevent investors from receiving essential information about public companies and therefore harm our markets.”

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