Wall Street regulator may ease climate costs rule, WSJ reports

(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may soften a proposed rule governing corporate disclosure of climate-related costs as a result of industry push-back, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The top U.S. financial regulator last year proposed rules that would require publicly traded companies to inform investors of risks tied to the warming climate and report carbon emissions from their own operations as well as from elsewhere in the value chain. The final rule is expected later this year.

While the SEC’s climate disclosure plan forms a key piece of the Biden administration’s climate policies, industry has criticized the proposed rule in its current form as excessively onerous, foreshadowing likely court battles once the rule is finalized.

The SEC is considering raising a threshold at which companies would have to disclose climate-related costs, according to the WSJ report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

An SEC representative said the agency had no comment.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Paul Simao)