Dive Brief:
- The California Air Resources Board, the state agency responsible for implementing the state’s climate-risk disclosure laws Senate Bills 253 and 261, is planning to issue proposed rules for the two regulations on Oct. 14, CARB said Thursday at its second public workshop on the laws.
- The agency also issued a projected cost of compliance for the laws and shared the disclosure timeline for companies covered by SB 253 to disclose their scope 1 and scope 2 emissions for the first time. Companies covered by SB 253 should expect to report their scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by June 30, 2026, according to the meeting’s slides.
- The Aug. 21 meeting was the second public workshop on the pair of climate-risk disclosure laws, and CARB looked to clarify issues of how to report under SB 261, who is scoped into each law and how it will define “revenue” and “doing business in California.”
Dive Insight:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom first signed SBs 253 and 261 — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act, respectively — in 2023 and greenlit the laws the following year by signing another bill that kept the laws’ original 2026 reporting deadlines but gave CARB additional flexibility to promulgate the regulations.
SB 253 requires companies with more than $1 billion in revenue to report scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, with eventual scope 3 disclosures, and SB 261 requires companies with at least $500 million in revenues to make biennial climate-related risk reports.
CARB was supposed to have issued the final regulations for both laws by July 1, but — after issuing the rules Oct. 14 and allowing 45 days to comment — now expects its board to consider the regulations on Dec. 11-12, according to the slides…