The Securities and Exchange Commission Jan. 27 recommended giving public companies interpretive guidance on how existing risk disclosure rules apply to disclosures of climate change-related risks.

The interpretive guidance, which the commission recommended on a 3–2 vote, will become official when it is published in the Federal Register in coming days, Meredith B. Cross, director of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance, said at an open meeting where the vote took place.

In a speech before the commission vote, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said, “An interpretive release, as this is known, does not create new legal requirements or modify existing ...