Newsom Urged to Sign Groundbreaking Climate Bill With Global Implications

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has an opportunity to make California—one of the world's largest economies—the first U.S. state to require large corporations to publicly disclose how much their business activities contribute to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

All he has to do is sign S.B. 253, a measure that the California Legislature passed earlier this week. Known as the Climate Corporate Leadership and Accountability Act, the bill would force companies in the state with more than $1 billion in total annual revenues to report emissions from their operations and supply chains, as well as from the end-users of their products.

Environmentalists celebrated the legislation's passage earlier this week, calling it a critical step toward holding big companies accountable for fueling the climate emergency, which has driven increasingly destructive extreme weather in California and across the globe.

"For too long, corporate polluters and financial institutions have tried to downplay the growing risks their climate pollution poses to investors, customers, communities, and the economy," Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous said in a statement Tuesday. "California joins a growing list of jurisdictions around the world mandating that corporations accurately disclose all their direct and indirect emissions so that stakeholders can understand and make informed choices about companies' climate risks and impacts."

"The Sierra Club urges Gov. Newsom to sign this legislation quickly," Jealous added, "and we urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to join California, the European Union, and other jurisdictions in taking a comprehensive approach to requiring the disclosure of all emissions and major climate risks."

"This bill will have global impacts in our fight to reduce pollution and the connected catastrophic impacts like extreme heat, fires, flooding, and drought."

Newsom has until October 14 to sign S.B. 253, which was spearheaded by California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11). The bill drew opposition from powerful lobbying organizations including the California Chamber of Commerce, which claims the bill's reporting requirements would be too "costly" for companies.

Following the bill's passage, Wiener's office accused the Chamber and SoCal Gas Company—another opponent of the measure—of spreading "misinformation" and said the latter "has a long history of using ratepayer dollars to fund dishonest campaigns against climate action."

"With no standardized disclosure requirements, some corporations attempt to deflect scrutiny from their contributions to the climate crisis," Wiener's office noted. "Due to the lack of transparency around their climate risks and impact, large corporations currently evade the scope of many state regulations, and can mislead potential customers who wish to minimize their contributions to the climate crisis."

Mary Creasman, the CEO of California Environmental Voters, said Tuesday that given the state's status as the world's fourth-largest economy, "this bill will have global impacts in our fight to reduce pollution and the connected catastrophic impacts like extreme heat, fires, flooding, and drought."

"We are closer than ever to making it a reality that our largest corporations (who are responsible for 71% of global emissions) will have to measure and publicly disclose their pollution through all scopes of business," Creasman added.