A green victory in the midst of potential defeat? Concern and optimism about the impact of the SEC’s climate-related disclosure rule

In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) finally proposed long-anticipated climate-related disclosure rules. The SEC’s rule proposal directly responds to decades of shareholder and other stakeholder pressure for climate-related disclosure. Alas, the rule proposal has received significant pushback from academics, business leaders, industry groups, nd elected official. Although the SEC remains committed to enacting climate-related disclosure, the considerable pushback not only may prompt the SEC to limit key aspects of the proposal rule, but also almost inevitably means that any adopted rule will face serious legal challenges. This chapter argues that even if the proposed rule is set aside or otherwise dramatically altered, it nevertheless may serve as a vital blueprint for shareholder and stakeholder efforts to enhance voluntary climate-related disclosure. Thus, the rule proposal may meet its goal of generating more uniform, consistent, and useful climate-related disclosure, thereby significantly impacting the evolution of such disclosure.