On September 27, 2024 Governor Newsom signed California state Senate Bill ("SB") 219 into law. What does this mean for companies?

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California’s Climate Accountability laws include three bills passed in 2023: the “Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act” (SB 253), “Climate‐Related Financial Risk” (SB 261), and “Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act” (Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1305).

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Earlier this year, there were meaningful discussions about substantial legislative changes to those three laws, including changing the effective date of AB 1305 and meaningfully delaying the private-sector obligations under SB 253 and SB 261. Those large changes did not come to pass.

Instead, late last month, Governor Newsom signed into law a much more modest bill, called SB 219, whose biggest change was to delay the date by which the California Air Resource Board (CARB) must issue regulations to govern SB 253 by six months, from January 1, 2025 to July 1, 2025.

Importantly, under SB 253 and SB 261 amended by SB 219 still require:

• US companies doing business in California, with annual revenue of at least $1B to disclose their scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions:
  • Starting in 2026, Scope 1 and 2 emissions reporting is required for the prior fiscal year
  • Starting in 2027, Scope 3 emissions reporting is required for the prior fiscal year
• US companies doing business in California, with annual revenue of at least $500M to prepare and make available on their public Web sites a climate-related financial risk report by January 1, 2026, and update biennially. 

The effective date of AB 1305, requiring disclosures about carbon credits like those found at cnaught.com/projects remains January 1, 2025.

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These bills are expected to impact more than 10,000 companies, and we will be keeping a close eye on updates from CARB.

‍Reach out in the meantime to learn more about how we can support your company’s overall climate journey.