By Vanguard Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — As the Trump administration moves to roll back federal climate protections, California regulators have voted to move forward with a first-in-the-nation corporate climate disclosure law requiring billion-dollar companies to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions.
The California Air Resources Board approved an initial regulation to implement Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. The vote marks the first formal step in carrying out the law and enables the agency to begin receiving disclosures from covered corporations later this year.
The action comes weeks after the Trump administration withdrew the federal endangerment finding and scaled back multiple climate regulations, signaling a broader federal retreat from climate oversight. In contrast, California leaders framed the move as an assertion of the state’s continued climate leadership.
SB 253 requires corporations with at least $1 billion in annual revenue that do business in California to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, including both direct emissions and indirect emissions across their supply chains. The disclosures are intended to provide greater transparency to the public, investors and advocacy organizations regarding the climate impacts of major corporations.
“The world needs climate leadership right now, and California is doubling down,” Wiener said. “We have no choice but to keep making progress to prevent climate-driven wildfires and other disasters ravaging our state. Corporations contribute a massive share of the total emissions in our society, and we need the full picture to make the deep emissions cuts that scientists tell us are necessary to avert the worst impacts of climate change. These disclosures are simple but transformational, and I’m extremely proud to see CARB vote to implement them today.”
Sen. Henry Stern, D-Calabasas, author of SB 261, a related climate risk disclosure law, also praised the vote.
“Climate risk is financial risk,” Stern said. “And carbon disclosure is actually good for business, especially American business. Yesterday’s vote to approve the initial regulations for these landmark laws was critical, and I’m grateful to the Board and the Governor for taking the reins.”
SB 253 is the first law in the nation requiring large corporations doing business in a state to publicly disclose greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a widely used accounting framework developed by environmental and business groups. The reporting requirements include so-called Scope 3 emissions, which can account for more than 90% of a company’s total carbon footprint because they encompass supply chain and downstream impacts.
Under a phased implementation schedule, companies covered by the law will begin Scope 1 and Scope 2 disclosures on a voluntary basis in 2026. CARB is expected to vote later this year on a full set of implementing regulations that, if approved, would require all covered corporations to disclose Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions beginning in 2027.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed suit seeking to block implementation of SB 253. A lower court declined to halt the law, and the case is now on appeal.
During the 2023 legislative debate over SB 253, the measure faced opposition from business groups including the California Chamber of Commerce and Southern California Gas Co., which argued the law would impose burdensome requirements on companies. Supporters countered that standardized disclosure would increase accountability and help align corporate practices with climate science.
With the board’s vote, California moves closer to establishing what state leaders describe as the nation’s most comprehensive corporate climate transparency framework at a time when federal climate policy is in retreat.
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