ESG Rules Will Expose Companies to Litigation, SEC’s Uyeda Warns

SEC proposals to require climate risk disclosure and other types of ESG reporting are likely to raise compliance costs and fuel lawsuits against companies, without helping investors, Republican Commissioner Mark Uyeda said Tuesday.

Securities and Exchange Commission plans for mandatory corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting and new investment fund disclosures intended to combat greenwashing are “staggering in their complexity and reach,” Uyeda said. The agency should make disclosure rules that focus on financial returns, rather than embrace a subjective perspective of the public good, he said.

“We risk a regime that is subject to the whims of the administration in ...