Earth Science News
CLIMATE SCIENCE
SEC ends US companies' need to release climate impact data
SEC ends US companies' need to release climate impact data
by AFP Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Mar 27, 2025

The United States abandoned plans Thursday to require publicly-listed companies to disclose data on their greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to climate risks, with the financial regulator calling the rules "unnecessarily intrusive."

The Security and Exchange Commission's rules were adopted in March 2024, in the final year of Democrat Joe Biden's presidency, the first time the companies were required to report and address climate risks.

But under the Republican Trump administration the SEC has ended its defense of the disclosure regime.

"The goal of today's Commission action ... is to cease the Commission's involvement in the defense of the costly and unnecessarily intrusive climate change disclosure rules," SEC Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda said in a statement.

Under the regulation, which was to be phased in over the 2025 fiscal year, companies would have been required to report Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions -- which cover direct emissions and those for energy purchased to run operations -- when those emissions are "material," or significant.

Listed companies also would have had to report on climate-related risks and their real or potential effects on corporate strategy, business models and forecasts.

"States and private parties have challenged the rules," and the commission had paused the regulation pending completion of the litigation, the SEC said Thursday.

"Following today's Commission vote, SEC staff sent a letter to the court stating that the Commission withdraws its defense of the rules."

Shortly after the text was adopted in March 2024, prosecutors in nine states took the case to a federal appeals court.

At the time, West Virginia's attorney general Patrick Morrisey -- today the state's governor -- described the Biden-era policy as "a backdoor move to undermine the energy industry."

Morrisey had denounced SEC efforts to force companies to act definitively on climate change when "there are people that devote their life to this topic and you can't find much agreement."

A Cornell University study from 2021 showed that 99.9 percent of published research had concluded that climate change was primarily caused by human activity.

EU emission target delay sparks worries of climate retreat
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Mar 27, 2025 - A delay in setting new emission reduction targets has raised concerns that the EU has put its ambitious climate agenda on the back burner, bowing to political headwinds.

A proposal to cut Europe's planet warming emissions by 90 percent by 2040 will not be on the table as environment ministers from the bloc's 27 countries meet in Brussels on Thursday.

The European Commission had indicated it wanted to make the plan official in the first quarter of the year but it has so far failed to do so -- to the worry of green groups and lawmakers.

"Climate was central five years ago. Right now, it's clearly not," lamented an EU official.

The 90 percent reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions relative to 1990 is considered a stepping stone towards the EU's broader goal to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

The latter is at the heart of the European Green Deal, a landmark package of measures that defined commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's first term in office but has since come increasingly under fire.

Right and hard-right gains across Europe and the return of Donald Trump to the White House have focused Brussels' attention on defence and competitiveness -- which critics of climate action say is hindered by green rules.

"The failure to publish" the new targets "sends a clear and troubling message about the EU's commitment to the green transition," said Dario Tamburrano, an EU lawmaker with the Left group.

The commission said the 2040 targets would be finalised as soon as possible, adding the "EU's actions and intentions" were "clear" with a "framework to become a decarbonised economy by 2050" already in place.

"We will continue to be a leading voice for international climate action," it said.

Yet, it has already fallen behind in its international commitments.

It missed a February UN deadline to submit new carbon emissions targets for 2035 under the Paris Agreement. Most nations also failed to get their plans together in time.

- 'Under attack' -

Environmentalists see the EU's dithering as particularly worrying at a time where many look to it for leadership after President Donald Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the Paris accord.

"It raises unnecessary concerns internationally on the EU's commitments to climate cooperation," said Linda Kalcher, director of Strategic Perspectives, a think tank.

Other big emitters could now "use the EU as an excuse to also be late" and there was a risk some would go ahead and publish lower goals than they would have, had the EU already set the bar high, she added.

Disagreements among member countries and the commission are said to be behind the slow pace of progress.

"There is a lack of political will," said Caroline Francois-Marsal of the Climate Action Network, an advocacy group.

Italy's Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said this month the commission should consider lowering the target to 80 or 85 percent, arguing these were also in line with the net-zero 2050 ambition.

A higher goal risked forcing countries to take "overly aggressive measures" with uncertain outcomes, tying them to "technologies that are not yet mature".

The Czech Republic, home to a power-hungry heavy industry, considers the 90 percent goal impossible to achieve.

Observers say Poland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, would like the debate to play out after its own presidential elections in May, and France has said Brussels should refrain from setting targets without detailing how to meet them.

"We want a target that is constructed in the most credible way possible," said French Ecological Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.

"Climate policies are under attack from all sides," concluded Michael Bloss, a German EU lawmaker with the Greens.

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
CLIMATE SCIENCE
'We are not in crisis': chair of IPCC climate body to AFP
Paris (AFP) Mar 26, 2025
Jim Skea insists the IPCC, the UN climate panel he chairs, is not in crisis and remains relevant despite criticism it is too slow in publishing its landmark scientific reports on climate change. In an interview with AFP in Paris, the British sustainable energy professor addressed divisions within the IPCC, the US retreat on climate cooperation, and record-breaking global temperatures. Q: At a recent meeting in Hangzhou, China, the IPCC failed to agree on a publication timeline for its next crit ... read more

CLIMATE SCIENCE
US says team on way to quake-hit Myanmar, defends pace

Thai authorities probe collapse at quake-hit construction site

WHO says Myanmar quake a top-level emergency, seeks urgent funding

Myanmar quake: a nation unprepared for disaster

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Eco-friendly rare earth element separation: A bioinspired solution to an industry challenge

OpenAI says it raised $40 bn at valuation of $300 bn

World's third largest steelmaker posts nearly $1 bn loss

Four men loom large in Microsoft history

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Why has Mexico's water debt opened new battle line with US?

Macron vows to defend science as host of UN oceans summit

Future of ocean economy at threat, OECD says

Canadian deep sea miner to seek US permit as intl talks drag on

CLIMATE SCIENCE
New model reveals global chain reaction behind ancient sea level surge

Melting ice, more rain drive Southern Ocean cooling

Drone reveals airborne clues to Greenland ice sheet melt

Vance due in Greenland as anger mounts over Trump takeover bid

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Technology developed by MIT engineers makes pesticides stick to plant leaves

Hundreds of fungi species threatened with extinction: IUCN

EU unveils plans to help wine sector; France says China grants delay over cognac duties

New insights reveal how social dynamics drove the rise of agriculture

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Greek tourist islands hit by flash floods; 'Heartbreaking' floods swamp Australia's cattle country

Rescue hopes fading three days after deadly Myanmar quake

Myanmar holds minute of silence for more than 2,000 quake dead

Nuclear monitoring data points to undersea landslide as cause of West Africa internet outage

CLIMATE SCIENCE
DRC seeking 'safe exit' for southern African troops

Guinea ex-dictator freed from jail after 2009 massacre pardon: junta

Sudan army chief says war will not end until RSF lays down its arms

In Gabon, French army base shifts focus as one of last in Africa

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Colombia's lonely chimp Yoko finds new home in Brazil

Beijing simplifies marriages to encourage Chinese to wed

When did human language emerge?

Study reveals how rising temperatures could lead to population crashes

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.