NEW YORK (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday he plans to sign two climate-focused bills aimed at forcing big companies to be more transparent about their greenhouse gas emissions and financial risks from global warming.
Newsom’s announcement came during an out-of-state trip to New York Climate WeekWhere world leaders in business, politics and the arts come together to search for solutions to climate change.
California lawmakers last week Legislation passed Large companies from oil and gas companies to retail giants require it Detect their direct emissions of greenhouse gases In addition to those that come from activities such as employee business travel.
The bill’s author, Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, said such disclosures are “a simple but very powerful driver of decarbonization.”
“This legislation will support those companies that are doing their part to address the climate crisis and create accountability for those who don’t,” Weiner said in a statement Sunday applauding Newsom’s decision.
Under the law, thousands of public and private companies that operate in California and generate more than $1 billion annually would have to file emissions disclosures. The aim is to increase transparency and get companies to evaluate how they can reduce their carbon emissions.
Second invoice The state Assembly last week agreed to require companies that make more than $500 million annually to disclose the financial risks climate change poses to their businesses and how they plan to address those risks.
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Los Angeles Democrat who introduced the legislation, said the information would be useful to individuals and lawmakers when making public and private investment decisions. The bill was recently changed to require companies to start reporting information in 2026, instead of 2024, and to require them to report every two years, instead of annually.
Newsom, a Democrat, said he wants California to lead the nation in addressing the climate crisis. “We need not only to exercise our formal authority, but to share our moral authority more,” he said.
Newsom’s office announced Saturday California has sued some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, claiming they deceived the public about the dangers of fossil fuels that are now responsible for storms and wildfires linked to climate change that have caused billions of dollars in damage.
The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in San Francisco also seeks to create a fund — funded by businesses — to pay for recovery efforts in the wake of the devastating storms and fires.