4 steps the SEC could take in accounting to improve climate disclosures

– 4 suggestions for the SEC to consider when implementing rule changes in the climate accounting area.

In this note, Samantha Ross of the Center for American Progress writes about the need for the SEC to act to make climate-related disclosures more standardized and meaningful. Samantha notes these four steps that the SEC should take:

1. Fully enforce existing accounting and related disclosure requirements to reflect the financial impacts of the climate crisis and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
2. Update disclosure, through a staff accounting bulletin and other guidance and rulemaking, to spread identified best practices about material climate-related information across industries and markets.
3. Leverage the audit to build a solid bridge between climate-related risks and corporate financial reporting.
4. Address the ways in which the existing U.S. accounting standards exacerbate systemic climate risks.

The article delves into each of these four steps in depth…