The SEC’s Prudent Rescission of its Misguided Climate Disclosure Rule
Abstract
We present support for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2026 proposal to rescind its climate-related disclosure rules. In doing so, we restate and incorporate by reference three prior comment letters submitted by our group of ~20 professors of law and finance concerning the Commission’s climate-disclosure initiative: comments on the original proposal in April 2022, supplemental comments in June 2022, and comments on the final rule in February 2024. Those prior letters are republished here as attachments.
Across these submissions, we consistently argue that the climate-disclosure regime exceeded the SEC’s traditional investor-protection mandate, departed from established principles of materiality, imposed substantial compliance and litigation costs, and raised significant administrative-law and constitutional concerns. The letters examine distinctions between “investor demand” and investor protection, the allocation of authority between federal securities regulation and state corporate law, and the economic consequences of mandatory climate-related disclosure.
Taken together, the letters provide a contemporaneous scholarly record of the principal legal, economic, and policy arguments advanced during the SEC’s climate-disclosure rulemaking process, from proposal through adoption and ultimately to rescission.
Read the full piece at SSRN.