A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas. Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas is the main driver of global warming.A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas. Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas is the main driver of global warming.
"Whether climate disclosure at a global level will ever have the greenhouse gas emissions reduction effect we need, and whether it will have that effect fast enough, I think is still an open question," says Cynthia Williams, a law professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law."But what this disclosure regime can do is cause companies to take climate governance more seriously."A tug pushes a barge onto the Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi, in October 2022.
However, the rules don't go as far as proponents had hoped. Environmentalists and some investor groups wanted regulators to also force companies to say how much climate pollution comes from things like their supply chains, investments and customers using their products. For a lot of businesses, those so-called Scope 3 emissions account for most of their total carbon footprint.
"The rule is a step in the right direction," says Kathy Fallon, director of land and climate at the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental group."But now, it's so watered down that it's like going out to buy a house and you only get the disclosures that the seller wants to share with you, or that they think are relevant to you.", the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong and Japan.