On December 16, 2024, the California Air Resources Board--the regulatory agency responsible for implementing California's mandatory climate disclosure regime--solicited public feedback concerning the design of the regulation. (California's mandatory climate disclosure is embodied in two separate laws, S.B. 253 and S.B. 261, which mandate climate disclosures for companies doing business in California; companies with over $500 million in revenue must disclose climate-related financial risk, and companies with over $1 billion in revenue must also disclose Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.) Specifically, the regulator asked for feedback on thirteen (13) different parameters associated with the law.

Notably, the California Air Resources Board asked about the following issues:

• how the phrase “doing business in California,” and so subject to the law, should be interpreted (e.g., as per “Revenue and Tax Code section 23101”);
• whether the “state [should] require reporting direct to CARB or contract out to an ‘emissions’ and/or ‘climate’ reporting organization”; 
• whether “there [are] specific aspects of scopes 1, 2, or 3 [GHG] reporting that CARB should consider standardizing”;
• “what standards should be used to define limited assurance and reasonable level of assurance”; and
• how reporting on climate-related financial risk would or should be “different than the guidance provided by the Final Report of Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.” 

As can be seen from the large number of questions posed by the California Air Resources Board, there are a significant number of open issues as the regulator attempts to translate the California climate disclosure laws into detailed regulations. Thus, there is an opportunity for impacted organizations to provide input--the comment period is open until February 14, 2025.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) is soliciting feedback to help inform its work to implement Senate Bills (SB) 253 (Wiener, Statutes of 2023) and 261 (Stern, Statutes of 2023), both as amended by SB 219 (Wiener, Statutes of 2024). This early solicitation step allows CARB to gather important information, from a wide range of stakeholders, relating to developing approaches to implementation.