Legal experts: SEC climate disclosure proposals ‘within rulemaking authority’

Leading US law professors have written an article for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance arguing that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) recent proposal on climate-related disclosures is within its “rulemaking authority”. Critics had claimed that it is not the SEC's job to be an environmental regulator and that the proposal went beyond its mandate. In the article, written on behalf of 30 legal scholars with an expertise in securities law, the authors argue that "it is our view that the commission’s proposal contemplates disclosure requirements that are consistent with close to nine decades of regulatory practice at the federal level and with statutory authority dating back to 1933 that has been repeatedly reaffirmed by Congress and the courts. Accordingly, we are unanimous in our conclusion that the commission has the statutory authority to promulgate climate-related disclosure rules of the kind currently under consideration". The authors of the article are: Jill Fisch (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute); George Georgiev (Emory University School of Law); Donna Nagy (Indiana University Maurer School of Law); and Cynthia Williams (York University – Osgoode Hall Law School).