On April 4, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to pause the implementation of its climate-related disclosure rules that were adopted on March 6, 2024.
The new rules came under fire immediately after their adoption, with legal challenges brought by numerous parties, including 25 Republican attorneys general, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and affected companies such as Liberty Energy Inc. Certain environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, also brought legal challenges, arguing that the final rules do not go far enough in requiring meaningful disclosures of registrants’ climate-related risks. In the SEC’s order pausing the implementation of the climate-related disclosure rules, the SEC stated that such pause would facilitate the orderly judicial resolution of the above-referenced legal challenges and avoid potential regulatory uncertainty if registrants were to become subject to the rules while the legal challenges remained pending. Despite its voluntary issuance of the pause, the SEC stated that it would “continue vigorously defending” the rules’ validity in court.
For more on the SEC’s climate-related disclosure rules, see our original legal update published on March 14, 2024, and available here.
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact the authors or your MMM attorney.
