Acting SEC chairman pauses defense of ESG rule (2025)

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February 18, 2025

Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda asked a federal court Feb. 11 to stop proceedings in a case challenging the commission’s proposed climate disclosure rules. Uyeda said in a press release, “The Rule is deeply flawed and could inflict significant harm on the capital markets and our economy.”

The move indicates the SEC under the Trump administration will stop defending the rules, effectively leaving them dead.

The SEC under Chairman Gary Gensler introduced the final Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors rules in March 2024. ESG opponents—including a group of 10 state attorneys general—challenged the regulations, prompting the SEC to pause their enforcement in April 2024.

According to Citywire:

“

The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors - a set of climate-related rules proposed by the agency last year under previous chairman Gary Gensler - is currently being challenged in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. According to the SEC’s Tuesday announcement, the regulatory agency will no longer challenge the appeal - essentially leaving the proposed rule changes dead in the water. The proposed rules would have required ‘registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports,’ an SEC summary states. … ‘The Rule is deeply flawed and could inflict significant harm on the capital markets and our economy,’ Uyeda stated in a Tuesday press release.

”

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