SEC to Rescind Climate Disclosure Rule in Direct Contradiction to Investor Demand
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
After years of shareholders asking for climate disclosure - SEC moves to suppress material information
CONTACT: Ryon Harms, [email protected], 310.730.9407
EL CERRITO, CA — May 12, 2026 — As You Sow, the nation's leading shareholder representative, today condemned the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) submission of the proposed, "Rescission of Climate-Related Disclosure Rules" to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. The move advances the SEC's effort to eliminate its landmark 2024 climate disclosure rule that, despite never taking effect due to legal challenges, established a critical principle: climate risk is investment risk, and investors require the information to act on it as part of their fiduciary duties.
"This is another profound failure of the SEC's core mission," said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow. "Investors need standardized, comparable, and decision-useful data to assess financial risk and allocate capital responsibly. By rescinding this rule, the SEC is turning its back on the investors it exists to protect. This action treats the material financial risk of climate change, that harms every American, as nothing more than fulfillment of a campaign promise to the fossil fuel industry."
During the rulemaking process, tens of thousands of investors representing tens of trillions of dollars in assets submitted comments in near-unanimous support of mandatory climate disclosure. The SEC is now moving to erase that framework entirely, leaving U.S. markets without a baseline for the climate risk information investors require. As You Sow submitted comment letters throughout the rulemaking process, urging the Commission to establish robust, mandatory climate disclosures — including full Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions reporting.
"Rescinding this rule doesn't make climate risk disappear — it just makes it harder for investors to see it coming and adjust accordingly" said Danielle Fugere, President and Chief Counsel of As You Sow. “At its core, the rule affirms what investors have long known — that climate risk is material financial risk -- and that investors are entitled to consistent, comparable information about companies’ exposure to risk and their contribution to increasing that risk through their greenhouse gas emissions.”
This Administration has been intent on rolling back climate progress since its first term when it withdrew the U.S. from the global Paris Climate Agreement, an action that destabilized global climate progress. Since then, climate-induced, catastrophic storms have increased dramatically, as has the damage they are causing. Rather than face this reality, the Administration is deleting available information on the risks and impacts of climate change. For example, in May of last year, NOAA announced that it would no longer collect data for the Weather and Climate Disaster database which tracks a range of detailed information on the increasing number of large-scale climate disasters in the U.S., information which is relied on by the insurance industry for pricing and risk models, particularly for disasters that are not historically well modelled, such as severe storms and floods.
"Shareholders remain the early warning system built into the structure of the free markets,” said Behar. “We will continue pressing companies directly for the disclosure that regulators are abdicating their responsibility to require."
As You Sow calls on the SEC to halt this rescission and fulfill its statutory duty to ensure investors have access to material information. Despite these backward steps, the organization will continue its decades of shareholder representation — engaging companies and filing resolutions — to ensure climate risk is disclosed, understood, and acted upon.
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As You Sow is the nation’s leading shareholder representative, with a 30-year track record promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility. Its focus areas include climate change, ocean plastics, toxins in the food system, the Rights of Nature, racial justice, and workplace diversity. Click here to view As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.