Corporate Environmental Reporting and Climate Change Risk: The Need for Reform of Securities and Exchange Commission Disclosure Rules

Authors

Constance Z. Wagner, Saint Louis University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Abstract

This article argues for strengthened Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rules mandating the disclosure by businesses of the impacts of climate change on their operations. The author surveys the existing SEC regulatory scheme and concludes that it is insufficient since few companies are currently disclosing climate change risks in their SEC filings. Alternative approaches to filling the environmental risk disclosure gap are examined, but found to be poor alternatives to enhanced SEC requirements, since they fail to provide a scheme for uniform and consistent disclosures across companies.

Recommended Citation

Wagner, Constance Z., Corporate Environmental Reporting and Climate Change Risk: The Need for Reform of Securities and Exchange Commission Disclosure Rules (2009). 11 Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law 151 (2009).