The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has voted to end its ongoing defence of rules requiring companies to disclose climate-related financial risks. “The goal of [this] Commission action and notification to the court is to cease the Commission’s involvement in the defence of the costly and unnecessarily intrusive climate change disclosure rules,” said the SEC’s Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda. The rules were adopted in March 2024 and introduced an extensive special disclosure regime for publicly listed companies on their associated climate-related risks. States and private parties have been challenging these rules ever since. In a letter to a court in the Eighth Circuit which was presiding over litigation, the SEC confirmed that the SEC’s counsel is no longer authorised to advance any arguments in defence of the disclosure rule, with the Commission yielding any oral argument time back to the court. This follows Uyeda’s warning in February that he would be looking to delay and potentially roll back the disclosure rule.
