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What’s in the Final SEC Climate Disclosure Rule?, with James Cox

·29 min·2 clips
The SEC just released its 886-page final climate disclosure rule—what changed from the proposal two years ago?
The episode begins with host Kristen Hayes introducing the SEC's final climate disclosure rule, an 886-page document released just days prior. She welcomes guest Jim Cox, a corporate and securities law professor at Duke University with over 50 years of experience. Cox frames the SEC's interest in climate risks as reflecting societal and market trends, particularly the growth of ESG investing. He describes the final rule's tone as conciliatory, emphasizing standardization to enable comparability across companies, with many provisions being voluntary rather than mandatory. Cox notes the rule dropped Scope 3 emissions reporting due to data quality issues and high costs, contrasting it with the 2022 proposal. He praises the SEC's process, citing 16,000 public comments and alignment with industry frameworks like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Cox discusses the rule's legal footing, suggesting that stepping back from more prescriptive elements like scenario analysis may reduce vulnerability to challenges. He connects the rule to existing SEC practices like Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), highlighting its role in governance and investor decision-making. The conversation touches on the rule's potential to encourage companies to signal climate risk management voluntarily. Cox concludes by noting the rule's evolutionary nature, expecting future tweaks as experience grows. The episode ends with Hayes thanking Cox and standard podcast credits.

As heard by us

A measured look at why climate disclosure depends on information companies can reliably measure and control.

Resources Radio looks at the SEC's final rule on climate-risk disclosure for publicly traded companies, with attention to how the rule shifted after the earlier proposal and public feedback.

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Why you'd press play

You can hear the SEC climate disclosure rule get practical as scope 3 emissions run into questions of control, cost, and trustworthy information.

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