Climate Change Category Archives — Securities Fraud Lawyers Blog Published by Securities Fraud Attorneys

Climate-Related Risks: SEC Releases Proposed Disclosure Rules

Published on: March 28, 2022 | by Savage Villoch Law, PLLC

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s much-anticipated rules on climate-related disclosures are finally here. [1] On Monday, March 21, 2022, the federal securities regulator announced the release of a proposed rule, broadly referred by the SEC as “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” [2] The proposed rule comes to the delight of activist investors and others concerned about climate change impacts, while industry actors may fear the increased costs of the proposed mandatory disclosures.

The SEC has proposed rules which would require those registered with the SEC to disclose specific information regarding their climate-related financial risks and climate-related financial metrics. [2] This information would be disclosed to the SEC through an entity’s typical registration statements or annual reports, which already contain many other required disclosures. [2]

Importantly, the draft rules require companies registered with the SEC to disclose both their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions include three discrete categories – Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. [3] Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions are those emitted directly by the company through its operations, while Scope 2 emissions are the “indirect” emissions stemming from a company’s energy usage, such as through electricity generation. [4]

Retail Investor Beware: EV Companies Face Securities Fraud Scrutiny

Published on: August 9, 2021 | by Savage Villoch Law, PLLC

The recent announcement of securities fraud charges against Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola Corporation, may prove to be the first in a line of similar cases involving electric vehicle (“EV”) companies, and more broadly, companies that go public via SPACs. This situation highlights the importance of careful investment decision making, particularly in the EV and other rapidly growing, highly complex industries.

At the heart of the civil and criminal complaints against Nikola are allegations that as its CEO, Trevor Milton, regularly spread false and misleading information about the progress of Nikola’s EV products and technologies. Nikola’s focus is on manufacturing low- and zero-emissions trucks, and the complaints allege in part that under Milton, Nikola published a promotional video of a prototype truck which did not actually work, but appeared to only because the truck was set in neutral and rolled down a hill. [1]

Promotional videos like that one, along with Milton’s enthusiastic social media posts and numerous podcast and television appearances, all painted a picture of exciting and impressive forward progress at Nikola, which Federal prosecutors and SEC regulators allege was nothing more than an illusion. [2]

Can the SEC Help Protect Investors Against Climate Risk?

Published on: February 22, 2021 | by Savage Villoch Law, PLLC

This week’s unprecedented winter storm in Texas this is the latest reminder of intensifying weather events across the globe, and the damage left in its wake opens up important questions about whether our financial systems are prepared to withstand the impacts of climate change. One of the most important functions of regulatory bodies like the SEC is to protect the market from systemic risks, and there is a widening consensus that climate change is one systemic risk for which the SEC must prepare.

As defined by SEC Commissioner Allison Lee during her keynote speech at the PLI’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation in November 2020, a systemic risk is “characterized by the following features: (1) ‘shock amplification’ or the notion that a given shock to the financial system may be magnified by certain forces and propagate widely throughout; (2) that propagation causes an impairment to all or major parts of the financial system; and (3) that impairment in turn causes spillover affects to the real economy.” [1]

Put more simply, a systemic risk is one with the potential to result in the downturn, or even collapse, of an entire market system. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is one recent example of such a risk, as we continue to see its economic impacts across every sector of the market. During her speech, Lee noted that although the SEC is not in a position to regulate and slow the actual drivers of climate change, it can – and should – address climate risks through standardization of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures that financial institutions make.