New Law Would Legally Delay Implementation of SB 261 and 253

Senate Bill (SB) 219, adopted in September 27, 2024, would delay implementation of California’s landmark corporate disclosure acts, SB 261 (governing corporate climate risk disclosure) and SB 253 (corporate climate emissions disclosure). By and large, the changes will delay implementation of the acts slightly. The changes can be summarized as:

Existing Law (SB 261)Proposed Change
CARB must adopt regulations before January 1, 2025, requiring annual reporting for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Under this law, CARB must adopt regulations before July 1, 2025, requiring annual reporting for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. 
Starting in 2027, corporations must disclose scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, although disclosure of scope 3 emissions may trail other disclosures by 180 days.This law would change the reporting requirement so that corporations must disclose scope 3 emissions on a schedule adopted by the state board in regulations rather than on a set statutory schedule. This law would also allow reporting to occur on a parent company level.
Existing law requires reporting entities to pay a fee upon reporting.This law would eliminate the reporting fee requirement.
CARB must contract with an emission reporting  organization to develop a reporting program to receive and make certain required disclosures publicly available.The law would authorize, rather than require, the state board to contract with an emissions reporting organization.
Existing Law (SB 253)Proposed Change
On or before January 1, 2026, a covered entity—defined as a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity with total annual revenues in excess of $500,000,000—must prepare a climate-related financial risk report disclosing the entity’s climate-related financial risk and measures adopted to reduce and adapt to climate-related financial risk.  This reporting is due every two years.     Under existing law, CARB must contract with a climate reporting organization to prepare a report summarizing the disclosures.  The law would authorize, rather than require, the state board to contract with a climate reporting organization.
Existing law requires reporting entities to pay a fee upon reporting.This law would eliminate the reporting fee requirement.

Newsom Seeks to Defer Corporate Accountability Law

The Climate Accountability Package, which included Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 253 and Senator Henry Stern’s SB 261, will likely be delayed for several years due to hostility from the administration.

Even back when he signed the bill into law on October 7, 2023, the Governor expressed concern about bill’s financial impact on businesses, and indicated he would direct CARB to “streamline” the program. News reports indicated that CARB itself had urged amendments to weaken the climate disclosure law by removing requirements for businesses to report Scope 3 emissions. (See purported draft here.) Earlier this year, Governor Newsom proposed leaving out funding for their implementation from his January budget proposal; he reinstated funding in the May revised proposal, as part of a compromise that would fund all chaptered laws. That said, he proposed changes in the law that would substantially delay its implementation until 2028 for reporting on Scope 1 and 2 emissions and 2029 till Scope 3 emissions. A trailer bill incorporating this language has been drafted and is part of this year’s overall budget negotiations.

The Senators who drafted these bills are opposed to the changes.

For more on this, see our earlier blogs: Climate Transparency in California Is at Risk and SB 253 and 261: Climate Accountability Package Includes New Corporate Transparency Requirements.

Assembly Bill (AB) 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC) August 16 Meeting Continued on September 3

The EJAC will be meeting of Friday, August 16, 2024, from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. was interrupted due to a building wide power outage. The meeting will be continued on September 3, 2024, from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. The Committee will be hearing a few items, including an update to its charter. Otherwise, the Committee will primarily be discussing topics that will be covered at a joint EJAC and CARB meeting on  September 12, 2024, including (1) Low Carbon Fuel Standard, (2) Carbon Markets: Cap-and-Trade Program, including Resolution Development Progress, and (3) Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC).

The public may attend in person or remotely via zoom or phone. In person, the meeting will be held at CalEPA HQ Building, Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor, 1001 ” I ” Street, Sacramento, California. For remote attendance, you may call or attend via zoom as follows:

New Information for September 3 Meeting:

RegisterZoom (please register ahead of the meeting)
Passcode: 085999

By Telephone: 888 363 4734 US Toll-free   
Conference code: 176024

August 16 meeting:

RegisterZoom (please register ahead of the meeting)
Passcode: 711638

By Telephone: 888 363 4734 US Toll-free   
Conference code: 176024