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California Senate Approve Bill Requiring Corporations to Report Carbon Emissions
The California state senate passed a bill on Tuesday requiring large corporations to reveal their projected carbon emissions. It is the first law of its sort and may pave the way for similar measures to be adopted in other states.
As per the San Francisco Chronicle, 5,000 companies would be affected. It reported:
“The bill, SB253 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would make California the first state to require such disclosures from companies that operate in the state if their annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. It divided the business community, with some major corporations including Apple, Google and Levi’s supporting it while the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups opposed.
Lawmakers who support it argued the measure will provide consumers and investors with uniform information about companies’ carbon emissions so they can evaluate and compare their claims of environmental stewardship. It would take effect Jan. 1, 2025.
A previous version of the bill died last year.”
The final version of the measure was approved by the California State Senate on Tuesday, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will now either sign it or veto it.
The “Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act” states, in part: “Californians are already facing devastating wildfires, sea level rise, drought, and other impacts associated with climate change that threaten the health and safety of Californians.”
Scientists are unsure whether many of these phenomena, especially wildfires and drought, are “associated with climate change,” but theoretically they could become worse in a warmer, drier climate.
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